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PROOEKDINGS AND SPEECHES 



IN CELEBRATION 



Hantrtnfl of WBtlUum Henit, 



Historical Society of Peuusylvania, 



AT r It ILA D KLPHI A. 



]\(I\^<aaM^ 



On the 8th of B-e^^gaJiUiuQ r , 1852 



P H f L A 1) i; L P II 1 A : 
KING A li A 1 R D, P R I N T K R S, N n . (i S A X S M S T K E E I' 

18 5 3. 



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PROCEEDINGS OF THE CELEBRATION, WITH ADDRESSES AT THE 
TABLE, AND LETTERS OF INVITED GUESTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The oration by Hon. Robert T. Conrad, was delivered on the 8th of Novem- 
ber, 1852, at twelve o'clock, in the Sansom Street Hall, before a large audience. 
At six o'clock, the members of the Historical Society sat down to a dinner, at 
the United States Hotel ; Thomas Biddle, Esq. presided, supported by George 
W. Norris, M. D., and John Cadwalader, Esq., as Vice-Presidents; the Rev. 
H. A. Boardman officiated as Chaplain. Over the President's chair was sus- 
pended the original painting by West, of Penn's Treaty with the Indians. 
This fine work of art was painted for the proprietor's family, and was never 
but twice before exhibited to the public ; the first time, some thirty years ago, 
at an exhibition in London of the works of West, Reynolds and Lawrence, 
the three Presidents of the Royal Academy ; and again, when Mr. Harrison 
had purchased it, he generously permitted Mr. Catlin to exhibit it in connection 
with his gallery of Indian portraits. 

The Committee of Arrangements for the Celebration, take this public 
manner of thanking Mr. Harrison for his courtesy in placing the picture at 
their disposal for the day, and have the pleasure of inserting the following 
note, which at once displays a most liberal spirit and pure patriotism. 

433 Arch Street, December 8th, 1852. 
My dear sir: 

I owe you an apology for not having sooner sent you the information I pro- 
mised in regard to the picture of Penn's Treaty. In the spring of 1851, I 
saw this picture advertised in a London paper, to be sold at public auction 
with others from the collection at Stoke Park, the seat of the Penn family ; I 
concluded to attend the sale, and if not above my notion of its value to secure 
the picture with the intention of having it come to Philadelphia, which of all 
other places is its home. I bid for it when it was put up, and went nearly 
twice as high as I had thought it would have sold for. It was knocked down, 
but not for me. After the sale I was curious to know who had obtained the 
picture, and upon inquiry found that it had not been sold, not having reached 
the limit fixed by its owner. I subsequently negotiated its purchase from 
Mr. Granville John Penn for £500, through a third party, (I having been 
obliged to leave London for a time.) 

The above are all the facts connected with my purchase of this picture. I 
might say, that in buying it I was mainly filled with the desire as a Pennsyl- 
vanian and a Philadelphian, to rescue it for my native city, and thus prevent 
it from being hidden in some of the private galleries of England, as hundreds 
of the woi-ks of our distinguished countryman. West, are now lost to the world. 
Hoping the above will meet your wishes, I remain 

Very respectfully 

Your obedient servant, 
To TowNSKXD Ward, Esq. JOSEPH HARRISON. 



mVITED GUESTS AND SUBSCRIBERS. 



Edw. Armsteono, 

Henry C. Baird, 

J. D. Balu, 

Hon. James W. Beekman, New York. 

Thomas Biddle, 

Thomas Biddle, Jr., 

Rev. H, a. Boaedman, 

Geo. II. BoKER, 

Rev. Thomas Brainerd, 

Hon. Samuel Breck, 

John A. Browne, 

Hon, James Buchanan, Wheatland. 

F. N. Buck, 

E. Morris Buckley, 

Gen. Geo. Cadwalader, 

John Cadwalader, 

James H. Castlb, 

B. H. Coates, M. D. 

J. Harvey Cochran, 

Harry Conrad, 

Hon. R. T. Conrad, 

Caleb Cope, 

Major G. H. Crosman, U. S. A. 

William Duane, 

A. L. Elwyn, M. D. 

J. L. Fenimore, 

E. B. Gardette, M. D. 

Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, 

Fred. W. Grayson, 

Joseph Harrison, 

Samuel Hazard, 

Samuel Hood, 

Hon. C. J. Inoersoll, 

Edward D. Inqraham, 

W. Arthur Jackson, 

Alexander Johnston, 

Horatio G. Jones, Jr., 

John Jordan, Jr., 

Charles S. Keyser, 

J. R. Lambdin, 

Lyon Joseph Levy, 



Hon. Ellis Lewis, 

John T. Lewis, 

M. D. Lewis, 

J. H. Markland, 

Hon. W. M. Meredith, 

Jno. C. Mitchell, 

Tho. S. Mitchell, 

Charles M. Morris, 

Joseph B. Myers, 

John McAllister, Jr., . 

Morton McMichael, 

J. Engle Negus, 

Geo. W. Norris, M. D. 

Geo. Northrop, 

Gen. R. Patterson, 

Hon. a. G. Penn, Louisiana. 

Granville J. Penn, England. 

Jno. Penington, 

William Rawle, 

John M. Read, 

William B. Reed, 

Rev. Levin T. Reichel, Nazareth. 

W. Th. Roepper, Bethlehem. 

Henry R. Schoolcraft, 

Richard R. Seldenee, M. D. 

Hon. Geo. Sharswood, 

W. Shippen, Jr., 

Samuel L. Shobeb, 

Aubrey H. Smith, 

Jno. H. Swaby, 

Hon. Oswald Thompson, 

George Tucker, 

J. R. Tyson, 

Rt. Rev. Geo. Upfold, Bp. of Indiana. 

Richard Vaux, 

Chas. M. Wagner. 

EwD. H. Ward, 

TowNSEND Ward, 

John F. Watson, 

Thompson Westcott, 

T. I. Wharton, 



When the cloth was removed the President rose and proposed the following 
toast : 

The Eighth of November, 1682 — The day of the landing of the founders at 
Chester. 

Mr. Wm. M. Meredith responded as follows : 

The day is appropriate for recalling to our minds the memory of the founders 
of Pennsylvania, of that small band of "Friends" who, with Penn for their 
leader, ventured their future on an unti-ied soil, and among fierce and 
uncivilized tribes. We find much in the career of these Fathers of the Com- 
monwealth of which we may be justly proud. 

Their position at home was that of men of good substance and habits, and 
kindly affectioned. Persecution had produced the rare elfect of teaching them 
not to persecute others. They were not decayed tradesmen or idle yagabonds, 
but generally persons well to do in their woi'ldly affairs, who set forth upon a 
considerate plan of benefit to themselves, and by their example, to all mankind 
— the plan of founding a State in which all of English civil liberty, and more 
than all of English political and religious liberty, should be established forever. 

The MEANS which they employed were in accordance with the character of 
the men. They planted their foot on no soil without acquiring a title by the 
consent of its owners ; they were never squatters or intruders, nor was it 
their practice to seize without right whatever they felt strong enough to hold 
against right. They took up no goods on trust for which they never paid. 
They left no borrowed money to swell the insolvent schedules of doomsday. In 
their exodus they spoiled no Egyptians. Their hopes and thoughts were on 
eternity, but their credit was always redeemed in time. They used no 
violence, nor prepai'ed any defence against violence ; the doctrines of their 
peculiar sectarianism forbade both. They went among the savages with the 
same confidence that supported Daniel in the den of lions, the three children 
of Israel in the fiery furnace, and the Christian virgin among the wild beasts 
of the amphitheatre — and they came forth as unharmed. They never took the 
style of saints, nor earned the title of sinners. 

For their Ends, we desire they may be judged not by preliminary professions 
or postliminary panegyrics, but by their acts themselves. For political 
liberty they did all that circumstances would allow. Republican in feeling 
from the beginning, they became year by year more republican in practice. 
They did in fact, and promptly, establish civil liberty as large as was con- 
sistent with public safety — so large, that it has scarce been found practicable 
in modern times to extend it. Their early statutes evince profound thought 
and liberal intellects. They are models of wise statesmanship, as well as of 
clear, terse and undefiled English. The founders of this Commonwealth 
understood the true basis of legislation to be the uses and customs of the 
people. They sought to restore to their simplicity the well-fitting and easy 
garments in which Anglo-Saxon liberty had been clothed, and it is marvellous 
the skill with which these " drah coated men " (as they were sneeringly styled 
by an Englishman with a shovel hat)* stripped oflF the technicalities and tinsel 
which centuries had accumulated — and strij^ped them off, too, without injuring 
the texture or even marring the face of the cloth. For religious liberty, they 
established the largest that was then dreamed of. From the very beginning, all 
might be citizens who acknowledged a God, and all might hold ofiice who 
believed in our Saviour. At the time this was practically an unbounded 
freedom of conscience. It was not toleration, it was liberty. 

These, then, were their acts — these, therefore, were, in truth, their ends. 

Of the qualities of these men we may say that they were proportionate to 
their position, means, and ends. On the surface, indeed, lay peculiarities — 
eccentricities, if you will — of language and deportment — easy to be ridiculed ; 
— within, lived virtues and piety — hard to be imitated. That they were wise, 
liberal-minded, just, is shown by their works ; — their prudence is proved by 
their success, and their firmness and persistence, by all their history. In 

* The Rev. Sidney Smith. 



these qualities they may have been more oi- less nearly equalled, but their 
COURAGE was such as we believe no other people have exhibited. We find 
rare individual instances more or less resembling it. Fortitude is the ability 
to bear ills ; courage, the readiness to meet them. Of any two men, he dis- 
plays the greater courage who seeks the more imminent danger, upon the 
less stimulating motive. The man who, armed in proof, faces a spear-thrust in 
defence of his country, shows less courage than he who exposes hi* naked 
bosom to the steel in pursuing a scheme of philanthropy. When we read of 
the few Roman Senators who seated in their curule chairs, calmly awaited their 
massacre by the Gauls, we feel that they therein eclipsed all the heroism of the 
Roman armies. There is still, 1 think, a savage people somewhere in the East, 
to whose instruction missionary after missionary is ready to devote himself, 
though each is morally certain that, as soon as he shall have been fattened 
after his voyage, he will be roasted and eaten by his own catechumens — 
devoured by his own flock — yet an individual is never wanting to feed those 
sheep. 

The Quakers of Pennsylvania aflford the spectacle of a whole body of men — 
founding a State in the wilderness — seeking and facing the imminent dangers 
of the tomahawk and scalping-knife — of tortures and death — without arms 
oflFensive or defensive. The Roman Senators, in like manner, met equal perils, 
under the overruling motive of patriotism. The Christian missionary does 
likewise, under the powerful stimulus of religious enthusiasm. The Quakers 
alone did the same ; touched by no spur of patriotism — for they had then no 
ties of country here — urged by no goad of religious enthusiasm — for they were 
not then enthusiasts — but guided simply liy the reasonable fear of God, and 
love to all mankind. How much this courage was superior to the mere courage 
of arms, is shown by the ease with whicli the Quakers, whenever they have de- 
scended into the military arena, having attained militai-y distinction. I shall 
not pause long on the Free Quakers — commonly called Fighting Quaker.^ — who 
furnished gallant field and company officers in the Revolutionary war, and 
who (excluded from the regular body of Friends) formed a sect of their own. 
The men died game, and the sect died game. I think that, some years ago, it 
had dwindled to one man. Now almost any other sect, so reduced, would have 
either sought proselytes, or given up its own observances. But this last man 
did neither. On every First day morning, this uncompanioned remnant sat 
under the old accustomed roof-tree of the meeting-house at Fifth and Mul- 
berry, and spent his two hours of solitary peace, in contemplative meditation 
on his pugnacious predecessors, and in solemn communion with his own heart. 
I tell you that, when he hears the last trumpet, that " Friend" will stand to 
his arms. But, without dwelling on these, I will merely name Gen. Greene, of 
the war of Independence, and Gen. Brown, of the war of IBlll — the one, 
second only to him to whom it was more honor to be second than to be first 
elsewhere — the other, among the first of those to whom it would have been no 
dishonor to be second any where — the one, a Quaker blacksmith of Rhode 
Island — the other, a Quaker schoolmaster of Bucks county, in this State. 

These, then, were the qualities of the founders of our Commonwealth — 
piety, wisdom, justice, industrj', courage, modesty. If you will have us 
search, these are the gems that we find among our primordia rcmm : these are 
the jewels that adorned the Fathers of our State. We show them, but without 
boasting — nor yet are we ashamed of them. They need no artistic cutting to 
hide flaws ; we set them in no fairy ring of romance to obtain a factitious 
brilliancy. Here they are, just as we find them — rough, but real — and we 
stand upon these. If any think they can do better, let them show their hand. 
If we have been often silent while others spoke loud, it is that we court no 
rivalry ; if quiet when they were excited, it is only that we fear none. If 
we have never turned aside even to answer the vile abuse, which on the 
calumnious charge of dishonesty was vented against Pennsylvania by foreign 
dignitaries, domestic rivals, and a polluted press, it is because we know that 
from the breast-plate welded of truth and integrity, the shafts of slander glance 
harmlessly, and that no indefinite number of toads, by squeezing out their 



drops of loathsome exudation, can extinguish the sun, or dim the lustre of 
any fraction of humanity that is vivid with a spark of the celestial fire. 

Such, then, were the deservings of our predecessors ; such was the course 
in which they moved. Let every man follow them according to his gifts. 
Perhaps none may keep their pace, but all will be strengthened by the eifort 
to do so. 

They had one habit which I scarce like to mention just now ; but the muster- 
roll of their merits ought to be complete, and it is especially recorded that 
they never preached over their liquor. 

The second toast was: 

The memory of Fenn, which comes down to us sanctified by gentle deeds. We 
rejoice in the privilege of doing honor to the founder, in the person of his 
esteemed descendant. 

This sentiment was received with much enthusiasm, and was replied to by 
Mr. Granville John Penn, who acknowledged, in suitable terms, the honor 
paid to the memory of his ancestor, which he said he was gratified to feel was 
recalled not merely as a portion of history, or antiquity, but as an object of 
aifectionate regard and veneration. He concluded by remarking that the best 
testimony which Pennsylvania can give of her respect for the principles of her 
founder, must ever be the devotion she manifests to the cause of peace, and 
the fraternal union which connects her with her sister Commonwealths in the 
National Confederacy. 

The tliird toast was : 

Pennsylvania, whose mountains are mines, and whose valleys are gardens ; 
whose heart is gold, and whose sinews are iron. 

Governor Bigler, who had been expected to reply to this, was prevented 
from being present, but sent the following letter, which was read by John 
Cadwalader, Esq. : 

Harrisburg, Nov. &(h, 1852. 

Dear Sir, — 1 have been honored by the receipt of your favor of yesterday, 
inviting me to attend a " celebration of the 170th anniversary of the landing 
of William Penn," to be given by the "Historical Society of Pennsylvania," at 
Sansom street Hall, on Monday next, and am compelled to say, in reply, that 
my oflicial duties at this place will deprive me of the great pleasure I should 
take in being present on that interesting occasion. 

1 sincerely regret the existence of the circumstances which will prevent my 
attendance, not only on account of the peculiarly interesting character of the 
event to be commemorated, but because 1 am ever anxious to embrace every 
proper opportunity of giving the sanction of my official and personal influence 
to promote the literary and scientific advancement of the people. In your 
venerable, learned and honorable association, I recognize a body pre-eminent 
in this good work. While this great Commonwealth (the landing of whose 
founder you meet to commemorate,) has been blessed by Providence with 
almost boundless resources in the fertility of her soil — the abundance, richness 
and variety of her mineral deposits — yet these would remain as comparatively 
valueless as when they were trodden over by the untutored savage, if it were 
not for our institutions of learning, that develop the mind and cultivate the 
moral faculties of man ; and thus enabling him to conceive plans and adjust 
details to bring forth these vast treasures and reduce them to practical use. 

It is now the pride of Pennsylvania that she has made the diffusion of 
knowledge, by her Common School system, part of the machinery of her 
government, recognizing thereby the importance of the intelligence of the 
citizen to the proper support and perpetuity of her institutions. Whilst she 
thus sows the seeds of knowledge amongst the youth of the land, their further 
and higher cultivation must be greatly forwarded by the genial influences, the 
refined taste, noble aims and philanthropic efforts of associations such as that 
you represent. 

An Historical Society, presenting a full record of the past, teaching those 



of the present generation wisdom by an exhibition of the errors committed and 
tlic truths discovered by those who have preceded us, stimulating us to worthy 
aims, and constraining us, by the force of experience, to embrace the right, 
on all moral, political and scientific subjects, is a most valuable auxiliary to a 
good government, and should ever have her countenance and liberal support. 
AVhether destiny carves out for us a prominent part in the administration of 
government, or consigns us to the plough or loom, in these, as in every other 
pursuit of this life, mind — cultivated mind — is indispensable to success and 
happiness. 

Let me congratulate your learned association that the knowledge of these 
truths, and a relish for scientific and literary learning, is being rapidly diffused 
among the descendants of Penn. Prominent amongst the institutions that 
are contributing towards the promotion of this desirable end, is the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania. 

AVith many thanks for your kind consideration, 

1 remain, dear sir, your ob't servant, 

Wm. Bigleb. 

Mr. TowssEND Waud, Librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

The fourth toast was — 

The Three Loiccr Counties. In the olden time united to us by ties that made 
us one; may we in fraternal affection and in that maternal bond which secures 
one Constitution and one destiny, never be twain. 

In reply to this sentiment, Du. B. II. Coates said : — 

He had been requested to respond to this toast in the absence of one who 
liad the double superiority of not only being far better qualified to perform 
such a task, butj in addition, of being a native, not of Pennsylvania, but of 
one of the " three lower counties thereunto annexed" — the earliest instance of 
annexation with wliich the sjjealccr was acquainted in American history. 

In addressing such an assemblage, containing so many gentlemen of high 
character and commanding intellect, so many, indeed, who liavc served their 
country in conspicuous stations, he might well feel much hesitation. He 
should encourage himself with their good nature, and, in some degree, with 
the recollection of auld lang syne. He believed himself very certain that he 
owed the compliment of this request to the fact of his having had the high 
lionor to be one of the foundation members of the Society ; an advantage which 
he shared, he believed, with only one of the gentlemen now present, Mr. 
Thoinus I. AVharton. The contrast, indeed, between the first meeting, in a 
lialf furnished room over Laval's book store, and such a meeting as this, or as 
that at the oration this morning, was indeed encouraging. He should feel, 
too, recreant to the high character for military courage ascribed sportively 
by Mr. Meredith, in his recent remarks, to the Quakers, of whom Dr. C. was 
one, should he delay to comply. 

And surely there was no difficulty in assigning abundant evidence of the 
greatness and glory of the Swedes ami Dutch, the colonists of the three lower 
counties. It had been truly said that, when our ancestry arrived here, they 
did not finil the country a desert, but inhabited by men like themselves — by 
Christian men — imbued with the arts, and sensible of the duties of civilization. 
As military glory was in fashion now, he would say that certainly there was 
as wonderful a claim to military fame for the Swedes and Dutch as for any 
other people in the world. Two little nations, they achieved the most extra- 
ordinary exploits. One Swedish king, in a single campaign, conquered three 
monarchs, and dictated peace. And, at an earlier period, a Swedisii king, 
with a small force, put an end to the thirty years' war, broke the i)0wer of 
Austria, and defeated the utmost efforts of Tilly and AVallenstein. 

The little republic of Holland, with only two millions of inhabitants, success- 
fully defied and permanently weakened the power of Spain, and that at a time 
when it was truly said that " the sun never set upon her dominions ;" built the 
largest commercial city in the world ; founded empires in remote parts of the 



globe ; and only yielded, at last, in a desperate struggle, to the superior 
numbers of England. 

But it was not for this that the strongest claim was made for a grateful 
memory of the Swedes and Dutch. It was because they were the friends of 
religious and civil liberty ; because they put an end to persecution for 
religion ; because they patronised commerce ; and because they founded 
institutions of learning, which were the glory of the world. Sweden gained 
imperishable renown for her Upsala and her Linnoeus. Holland founded 
those Universities which gave the impulse to the Universities of Germany, 
now the great lights of civilized mankind. It was conceded that the celebrity 
of Leyden, Utrecht, and other Dutch Universities, was the cause of the 
great reforms and brilliant career of the institutions of Germany. Holland, 
too, was famous, little as she was, and in defiance of the most powerful kings, 
for protecting political exiles. But the speaker said he was well aware 
that he was detaining the company from those whom they were much more 
anxious to hear, and he should hasten to a close and cease to occupy their time. 

The fifth toast was : 

State Pride, State Fidelity, State Fraternity. 

" To thine own self be true ; 
And it must follow, as the night, the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 

Mr. James Buchanan spoke to this sentiment as follows : — 
I am a Pennsylvanian, in heart and soul ; and whatever can advance the 
interest or promote the glory of my good old native State, God bless her ! shall 
ever find in me a devoted advocate. I am proud of my State ; and State pride 
springs from that commendable and natural feeling — that love of our native 
land which Heaven, for the wisest purposes, has implanted in the human 
breast : 

" Breathes there the man, with soul so dead. 
Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land! 
Whose heart has ne'er within him burned. 
As home his footsteps he hath turned, 

From wandering on a foreign strand?" 

The citizens of Pennsylvania ought, in my opinion, to cherish this sentiment 
of State pride more than they have ever done heretofore. We have never 
properly appreciated ourselves. This noble sentiment, however, should never 
degenerate into harsh, jealous, or unfriendly feelings towards our sister 
States. Far, very far from it. But it ought to impel us to a generous rivalry 
with them for the palm of excellence in every thing which can advance our 
physical prosperity — in every thing which can elevate, enlighten and adorn 
the human character. 

Under our complicated but unrivaled form of government. State pride has 
become the truest patriotism towards the whole Union. It is eminently con- 
servative of our Federal Republican Government. What we have most to 
dread is the centralization of unconstitutional political powers in the Federal 
Government ; and the indulgence of a well regulated State pride, throughout 
the confederacy, will always preserve us from this abyss. As our territory 
extends, — as we rapidly advance in power and wealth, — as the patronage and 
expenditures of the Federal Government increase, the natural tendency 
becomes greater and greater to accumulate power at the centre of our system. 

But whilst thirty-one State sovereignties, proud of their power and jealous 
of their rights, shall continue to resist all encroachments from the General 
Government, they will ever preserve the just balance between Federal and 
State authority. So long as this balance shall be held with a steady hand, 
neither the Constitution nor the Union will ever be in danger. But let the 
pride and the power of the State sovereignties pass awny — let them be reduced 
to mere provincial corporations, dependent upon the Federal government, and 



8 

then the centralization of all powers at Washington, in fact, if not in form, 
will inevitably follow ; and thus the animating life and soul of our institutions 
will have fled forever. 

What hut centralization at Paris has rendered abortive every attempt, for 
the last sixty years, to maintain free republican institutions in France '.' Had 
she converted her ancient provinces into sovereign States, with State govern- 
ments, such as we enjoy, and established a Federal Republic, a coup d'etat at 
the Capitol could never have destroyed her successive free Constitutions. 
Liberty would then have taken refuge under the wing of the State govern- 
ments, and would have been protected by their power until the storm had 
passed away. Paris would then no longer have been France. Under our 
system, at the present moment, nothing could be so supremely ridiculous as 
an attempt to make a coup d'etat at Washington. 

State pride ought ever to cherish the Senate of the United States, as the 
selected protector under the Federal Constitution of State sovereignty. This 
is a body far more important, powerful, and august than was ever the 
celebrated Amphictyonic Council of Greece. Among our sister States, and 
throughout the world, the intellectual and moral character of each State in 
the Union is, and must be, to a great degree, estimated by the standard of 
the Senators whom she has selected to represent her sovereignty. I have 
often observed with what intense feelings of pride the citizens of Kentucky 
have in the Senate Chamber pointed to their Clay — the citizens of Massachu- 
setts to their Webster — the citizens of South Carolina to their Calhoun, and 
the citizens of New York to their Wright. Alas ! these intellectual giants, 
like all things human, have passed away. 

There is no State in the Union which can more justly indulge in feelings of 
State pride than Pennsylvania. Our enlightened, persevering and truly 
Christian founder, immediately after he had obtained the Royal charter, 
declared, in the spirit of prophetic enthusiasm : " God will bless and make it 
the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care of the Government, that it 
be well laid at first." And truly God has blessed it, and the seed which Wil- 
liam Penn sowed has borne the richest fruit. We have already become a 
powerful and prosperous nation, and united with thirty other confederate 
States, we have formed a Federal Republic which is the admiration of the 
world and the Star of promise in the West to millions of down-trodden men 
throughout the old world who are panting for the liberties which we enjoy. 
Besides, Pennsylvania is truly the Keystone of the Federal Arch ; and our 
character and position peculiarly qualify us to become the mediator between 
opposing extremes. Placed in the centre, between the North and the South, 
with a population distinguished for patriotism, steady good sense, and a 
devoted attachment to the Constitution and the Union, we stand as the days- 
man between the extremes, and can declare with a potential voice to both, 
" hitherto shalt thou go, but no further." It was from the Legislature of 
this great and glorious old Commonwealth tliat the first ray of liglit emanated 
to dispel the deep gloom in which the slavery question had involved our 
country. 

The heaven-born principle of religious liberty with which our founder was 
inspired has been always carried into practice in Pennsylvania. From the 
beginning, every man has enjoyed the natural right of worshipping his God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience. No bigot or despot has ever 
been suftered impiously to assume the attributes of Deity, and to interpose 
and prescribe the form in which man shall wursliip his Creator. 

Although there are events in our history wliich we may have cause to regret, 
yet, taken as a whole, the State has always been well and wisely governed. 
"By their fruits ye shall know them," is a rule dictated bj' divine authority. 
Judging according to this standard, where shall we find a people on the face of 
the earth — where has there ever existed a people more prosperous and more 
liappy tiian are the j)eople of Pennsylvania at the present moment ? Agriculture, 
manufactures and commerce are all in a fiourisliing condition. Labor every 
where finds \ rofitable employment. Every where a fair diiy's work commands 



9 

a fair day's wages. We have no poor amongst us, except the victims of 
idleness or misfortune ; and to relieve the unfortunate, we have a greater 
number of benevolent institutions than any of our sister States. The teeming 
bowels of our soil have been explored by the hand of enterprise and industry, 
and our vast mineral treasures are carried to our own markets and those of 
the world over the railroads and canals which have been constructed in all 
directions by the wealth and public spirit of our fellow-citizens. Nor have we 
confined ourselves merely to the development of our physical resources Every 
child born in the Commonwealth enjoys the same right to a good common 
school education that he does to breathe the vital air ; and every where temples 
arise for the worship of the Most High, erected by the voluntary contributions 
of a Christian people. 

Why f-hould we not, then, in the language of your toast, cherish " State 
pride, State fidelity, and State fraternity?" In politics, from the very nature 
of man, and of our institutions, we must necessarily differ ; but throughout 
all the vast range of subjects on which we have a common feeling, and common 
interest for our good old State, why should we not cordially fraternize ? The 
city of Philadelphia and the interior of the State are bound together by the 
strongest bonds of mutual interest. In this respect they are inseparable. 
The one is essential to the prosperity of the other. Let this not be the harsh 
bond of mere cold and calculating interest, but let it be the happy union of 
mutual kindness and affection. 

It cannot be denied, though it is to be deplored, that mutual jealousies, to 
some extent, have hitherto existed between the city and the country. These 
would pass away like the mists of the morning before the rising sun, if the 
people of both knew each other better. The citizens of Philadelphia do not 
generally visit the interior of their own State as much as we from the country 
ardently desire, or as often as the citizens of New York and Baltimore visit 
the interior of their respective States. Come more frequently amongst us, 
and you will find that for cordial, genuine, heartfelt hospitality — for magnifi- 
cent, grand and sublime scenery, Pennsylvania is not inferior to any State 
throughout the Union. 

Like quarrels between man and wife, there have been, doubtless, faults on 
both sides. Let us forget and forgive what may have been wrong in the past 
of either, and determine tbat hereafter the bonds of mutual affection shall be 
much stronger than those cemented alone by avarice and interest. For my 
own part, so far as I may possess any influence, I shall use my best exertion 
to bring about this consummation, so devoutly to be wished. 

" State pride. State fidelity, and State fraternity," now and forever! 

The sixth toast was — 

Washington, and the Soldiers of the Revolution. 

Mr. William B. Reed, said — 

Mr. President : — I esteem it a very high honor to be called to answer 
this toast. At the same time, it is not easy to do it — for " Washingtop 
and the Soldiers of the Revolution" is a subject so' completely overlaid by 
common places that it is hard to say any thing new or interesting about it. 
But it has occurred to me that this company of Pennsylvanians and Jerseymen 
— for some of us Pennsylvanians are, by descent at least, half Jerseymen — 
may be glad to recall what Washington and his fellow soldiers did for us and 
amongst us in their honored day and generation. I undertake to say that, 
within fifty miles of the spot where I now stand, there are more battle fields 
of the Revolution than in half the confederacy besides. But this is not what 
I meant to say. I meant to speak of Washington and his relations to our soil. 
I have not time to trace them all. I wish I had. There is a distant corner of 
our State, through whose valleys and hills Washington's steps may be traced 
when, a young, and relatively an obscure man, he served his apprenticeship 
of war .nnd peril. It was in that part of Pennsylvania, watered by streams 
which swell tlie (Miio, tliat Washington learned to be a soldier. It was in Penn- 



10 

sylvania — in Philadelphia — as •we all know, he became commander in-chief. 
It was in our old State House yard (I wish it had never had any other name,) 
that John Adams first mentioned Washington's name for this high trust — and 
it was from Philadelpliia, and surrounded by Philadelphia friends, he went to 
assume the awful burtlien of his trust — the greatest, in its responsibilities 
and its results, that any modern hero ever imdertook. He never returned to 
Philadelphia till two years afterwards, when, at the head of the American 
army, he marched to meet the enemy at Brandywine. It was a burning 
August day when what was called our army, hurried through these streets. 
AVe have an eye-witness's account of its appearance. Lafayette had just 
arrived, fresh from the review of the French guards at Versailles, where there 
was a full share of the pageantry of war, and he has told us what he thought 
of the hunting-shirts, and the half-naked men, and the green boughs stuck 
in their hats and guns ; but he lias told us, too, that at the head of the 
ragged, motley band, was one whose every look, and act, and figure, was 
the incarnation of all that poetry and romance give to their heroes. No 
marshal of France looked the knight of chivalry better than Washington. 
I have not time to speak of the rout at Brandywine, or the sorrows of Valley 
Forge. When I hear other states and cities tell of their classic spots — when, 
with no jealousy, I see the proud monument reared aloft which tells of one of 
New England's two battles — when year after year our New York brethren cele- 
brate, with great complacencj', the heroic day when, unmolested and of their 
own accord, after a quiet possession of six years, the British evacuated their 
city, and then, sir, I look round me in Philadelphia — within this historic circle, 
and see our battle fields — Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Paoli, Barrenhill, 
Germantown, Red Bank and Monmouth — for they are all in our neighborhood, 
and think of the neglected graves (I have seen them) of the gallant men who 
perished fighting for our homes, I feel it is something to be a Philadelphian 
and a Pennsylvanian yet. Washington and the soldiers of the Revolution 
belong more to us than to any others. AV'ashington came twice again to 
us as the leader of his soldiers, on his way to Yorktown and his way back. 
He came again on his way to Annapolis to resign his commission — and Phila- 
delphia welcomed him and honored him. He saj'S in his Diary, when he arrived, 
the bells were chimed. Yes, Christ Church bells, the ancient voices of our 
city's heart, never spoke a heartier or worthier welcome than they did to 
Washington, for he seeme<l to belong to us. 

Mr. President : One other word and I have done. Washington no longer 
belongs to us alone. His fame has outgrown the limits of our country. It is 
part of history — part of the glory of mankind. His letters have been trans- 
lated into German and French. The most eloquent character yet written of 
him is from a British pen, publishetl within the last year — from tlie pen of him 
who rumor says has been selected as the literary executor of the Duke of Wel- 
lington, (Lord Mahon.) And it was my good fortune (I hope I may be excused 
for referring to it,) within the last three months, in the historical home of that 
writer's ancestors, within walls hung with the portraits and arms of America's 
friends in her hour of need — the Stanhopes and Chathams — walking in paths 
laid out by hands (to use his own words,) which " scorned to sign the peace of 
Paris,"* it was my fortune there to talk of Washington — his times, his friends, 
his bright career. We talked of him as part of the common glory of mankind 
— as part of the glory of the English language — and the Englishman's praise, 
the praise of the scholar and the gentleman, was as hearty and unreserved aa 
mine. 

Now, Mr. President, this sentiment — this romantic sentiment about our 
forefathers of the Revolution is a thing we ought to encourage and stimulate. 
It may suit some people to ridicule it; but if, under the baleful influence of 
ridicule, it dies away — if nothing is to be thought of but the bright and glow- 

• Clievonini; in Kent, the seat of Karl Stanhope, whence on ISth October, 1709, Lord Chatham 
wrote. '• I carry ray ambition to he rcmuuibi-red at Cheveninj;, so far that I wish it may be said 
ln-reafter, if ever tnis phin for a mail ){Oes into I'xccntion. he who made ttiis way did not sij;n ttio 
pcare nf I'aris." 



11 

iug futui-e — if visions of glory to come make all that is behind us look dim and 
gloomy — if young 'America, unlike the Spartans of old, refuses honor and 
welcome to the man of ancient days, and his bright example, then Mr. Presi- 
dent, we may be sure that one element of heroic character is gone forever. I 
am proud to believe, when I look around me and hear what I have heard to- 
day, the spirit of loyalty to our history burns as brightly and purely as ever. 

The seventh toast was — 

The Treaty under the Elm ; in which wisdom dealt with simplicity, yet did 
not deceive : and power gave terms to weakness, yet did not oppress. 

On this sentiment being given by the President, Mr. Henry D. Gilpin said 
he was desirous not to sutFer it to pass, without offering a few remarks ; as he 
saw among the guests, who had honored the Society with their presence, a 
gentleman (Mr. Fernon) who, impelled by a generous and honorable sympathy, 
while he represented the county of Philadelphia in the State Legislature, had 
not forgotten, in the midst of his political duties, the incident in our history to 
which the sentiment alluded ; and had introduced and been instrumental in 
obtaining the passage of a law, by which a public square is hereafter to be set 
apart in commemoration of it. All people, sir, said Mr. Gilpin, have among 
them places, whose local associations recall to them incidents and men, whom 
they justly desire to keep in lively remembrance. The spirit of association which 
sanctifies the dwelling of Washington, and hallows the rock where the storm- 
tossed pilgi'ims of New England founded for liberty and religion an enduring 
home, is the same which has made dear to the Englishman and the Swiss the 
birth-place of Shakspeare and the battle-field of INIurat — is the same which, in 
times long before, preserved and pointed out the gulf of Curtius, in the midst 
of the Roman forum, and turned aside Alexander in his rapid mai'ch of con- 
quest, that he might visit the deserted shores of the Scamander, where Achilles 
fought, and of which Homer sung. There is, indeed, something in our nature 
— to borrow the idea of him whose eloquence was ever blended with the finest 
human sympathies — by which such scenes, when visited, excite sensations 
more lively than the best told story of the events and men with which they are 
connected, is ever able to awaken. And we, too, in Philadelphia, are not with- 
out our cherished scenes of local association ; nor is it an ungenerous vanity 
to say, that the sentiments which they excite, and by which we are attracted 
to them, are in their nature even more noble and better in their influences 
than those that are kindled by any spot where a patriot has lived or a poet has 
sung — where a warrior has triumphed, or an exile of freedom has found a 
home. Our cherished spots of local association are the Hall of Independence 
and the treaty ground of Penn. It is no mere connection with illustrious 
names, or acts of brilliant genius, enterprise or courage that imparts to them 
their interest ; but it is that from them — as was claimed for the oracles of old 
— deep, sacred and enduring truths were promulgated, which had, and are still 
to have, the most lasting influences upon the welfare and progress of man. It 
is not the memory of the men who sat in the Hall of Independence, that makes 
us pass with reverence beneath its portals, but because great truths were there 
made the basis of a social compact which nearly a century has already shown, 
and we may trust that many future centuries are yet to prove, to be most fitted 
to procure the prosperity and happiness of our race. It is no thought of the 
group collected beneath the Elm Tree at Shackamaxon — the graceful and 
manly form of Penn, serene in conscious virtue, his countenance beaming with 
hope and the belief that his " holy experiment" was successfully begim ; nor 
the patient and trusting crowd of "friends" around, who were to benefit by 
and perfect it ; nor the circle of red men, whose wild natures were already 
yielding to the influences of Christian justice, forbearance and love — it is not 
the thought of this scene, attractively as the genius of the artist might depict 
it, which makes us dedicate the well-remembered spot. It is because there — 
beneath the canopy of heaven and the primeval forest ; there — in the presence 
of civilized and savage man, the representatives at once of the future and the 
past — the glad tidings were announced, to be borne back on one hand across 



12 

the ocean on the wings of hope and promise, and on the other into the recesses 
of the unreclaimed forest, that a State ^vas to be founded " by deeds of peace," 
and with equal and considerate justice to all men who claimed its shelter or 
protection. No written record — no parchment with its dangling seals — has 
handed down to us the words of Penn, or the proceedings of that memorable 
council ; but a faithful tradition assures us that it aimed at no end of commerce 
or of gain ; that it sought only to announce, in language and with ceremonies 
that would not be forgotten, principles that should be sacredly adhered to in 
the commonwealth he was founding. Ere he had crossed the .Atlantic — almost 
before the gift of his province was perfected — Penn had publicly made known 
to the "friends" who should embark with him, the "frame of government" 
under which their " holy experiment" was to be commenced ; lie had promised 
to secure to them the fullest rights of self-government, and "all that good and 
free men could reasonably desire, for the security and improvement of their 
own happiness." "Let the Lord," he said, "guide me liy his wisdom to 
honor his name, and to serve his truth and people, so that an example and a 
standard may be set up to the nations." Nor was it for the white man only 
that his plans of justice aiul benevolence were formed. He remembered too, 
" the poor savage people who believed in God and the soul without the aid of 
metaphysics," but who had yet to know and to be secured "in their rights 
as men." In advance of his contemplated voyage — to guard them against 
fears not unreasonable — he sent them a letter, which was read to them by 
interpreters. " God," said he, " hath written his law in our hearts, by which 
we are taught and commanded to love, and help, and do good to one another ; 
now this great God hath been pleased to make me concerned in your part of 
the world, and I desire that we may always live together as neighbors and 
friends. I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just and 
peaceable life, and the people I send are of the same mind, and shall in all 
things behave themselves accordingly ; and if, in any thing, any shall otfend 
you or your people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same, 
by an equal number of just men on both sides, that by no means you may have 
just occasion of being offended against them. I shall shortly come to you 
myself, at which time we may more largely and freely confer and discourse on 
these matters." And come he did ; and beneath the Elm Tree at Shackamaxon 
his promise was redeemed. There, under that broad canopy which nature 
spreads for all her children, he gathered together, not alone "the poor, dark 
souls round about him," but the "friends" from every land who had listened 
to his cheering promises — from England, from Wales, from Sweden, from Hol- 
land, from the Rhine. There, were his hopes, his promises, and his plans 
renewed. There, were they explained with all the eloquence of sincerity and 
truth, so that even from the sealed heart of the Red man burst forth the irre- 
pressible response — " We will live in love with Uncas and his children, as long 
as the moon and the sun shall endure." It was beneath an oak tree in the 
plain of Ilohron, whose site a pious tradition long kept in remembrance, that 
the patriarch dwelt and spread around him the sacred lessons of the true reli- 
gion. Under a plane-tree, near the banks of the Ilissus, Socrates disclosed 
to his assembled followers the doctrines of a philosophy almost divine. The 
great statesman and orator of Rome has preserved for us the eloquent record 
of the conferences of the most distinguished of her sons, in the tranquil shade 
of a plane-tree on the slopes of Tusculum. Rut of neither of these will the 
grateful tradition be more long and reverently preserved, than that which will 
consecrate the Elm Tree beneath whose branches was proclaimed the motives, 
the objects, and the plans of him whose name is, and forever will be, joined 
•with that of the community which he founded. 



13 



The ciffbth toast was ; 



Coaquannock — called into life as Philadelphia, by Penn, erected into a great 
Capital by his successors. 

Mr. J. R. Tyson being called to respond to this toast, said: 

The toast, Mr. Chairman, which has just been read, may well cause some 
hesitation in the reply. It brings into view the solitude which once bi'ooded over 
a spot which is now occupied by the crowded avenues, the well filled storehouses, 
and the stately residences of a refined and luxurious city. If we compare the 
forest home of the savnge hunter, as he ranged in 1682, without control, over 
these plains, with the scene which we now behold around us, the contrast is 
perfectly marvellous. From the Delaware to the Schuylkill river and stretch- 
ing indefinitely beyond it to the western Ocean, there lay a dense and unbroken 
wilderness, the abode of wild beasts, and the still wilder Indian. These noble 
rivers which are now the highways of a large commerce, passed in silent gran- 
deur to the Atlantic, unvisited in their solitary flow, except by the breezes of 
Heaven, or the light canoe which danced over their waters ! We may picture to 
ourselves from the festive board at which we sit, and amid the embellishments 
of artificial elegance, the rudeness of primeval woods, and the barbarism of 
forest life. We may picture to ourselves the old Indian of the Leni Lenapes, 
leaning forward to catch the first glimpses of the good ship Welcome as she 
hove in sight, and afterwards, with simple wonder, contemplating the emblems 
of peace and friendship held out to him and his tribe by her venerated chief. 

The axe of the woodsman, the ploughshare of the farmer, and the saw of 
the artisan, were emulous in the work of changing this scene of blank but ma- 
jestic solitude into active and stirring life. Those fine oaks and towering cedars 
which had stood erect, amid the blasts of centuries, fell before the march of 
the invaders. The^' were the only foes which encountered the enmity of the 
strangers. They were made to give place to the genial influences of light and 
air, to the needful succession of seed-time and harvest, to comfortable abodes 
for the habitation of man, and sacred fanes for the worship of God ! 

But your toast, sir, does not look merely to a desert converted into a garden, 
or a wilderness made to blossom as the rose. To my apprehension, it implies 
something more than these. — " Coaquannock, called into life as Philadelphia by 
Penn," beautifully expresses the magical impress which was made by the 
founder's genius upon the chaos around him. It seems intended to describe 
the caduceus of Penn's moral power ; the more than Promethean fire which 
\ie infused into the inert mass of savage desolation ; the mighty spirit which 
he breathed into all, by his sublime maxims of social and religious freedom ! 
This was all the incantation which Penn employed, in calling Philadelphia 
into life out of dead Coaquannock ! 

The age of Penn, passing that of the 2d Charles, of the 2d James, and of 
William and Mary, included the Augustan age of Anne and George 1st. 
Though the refined era of Addison and Pope, it was an age which was marked, 
in England and Scotland, by manners, as fierce and atrocious, blended with 
a policy as indirect and subtle as those of the American Indian. The famous 
Rob Roy and his freebooting companions pillaged and murdered, without 
scruple, almost within sight of the city of Glasgow, and within hearing of 
its learned University. The contrasts presented by such opposite conditions 
of life, among the same people, in^e same age, and the same neighborhood, 
are more striking and more humiliating than in difl'erent races, periods, 
and nations. The vicinity of such contrarieties of character, maintaining 
their own separate spheres, like parallel lines indefinitely prolonged without 
uniting, present subjects of painful interest to the philosophical student of 
history. But while the laws of Scotland, armed with the terrors of death, 
confiscation, and exile, were incapable of preventing the horrors of these 
freebooters' enormities, or of checking the violence of their excesses, Penn 
could disarm, his ferocious neighbours, and convert their enmity into friend- 
ship, by the simple policy of mild words, sincere professions, generous acts, 
and just counsels. Bloodshed was stopped among themselves, and uninter- 



14 

Tuitted kindness and friendship secured to their European visiters. Not a 
drop of Indian or white blood stained the virgin soil of Pennsylvania for half 
a century from the English settlement. Such is the first bright page of our 
domestic annals ! It is that which is associated with Penn and the pinmitive 
age of Philadelphia. 

No town in the colonization of North America made such rapid progress. 
Within 20 years from that period, when the Indian hunter ranged in pursuit of 
game over the wild region of Coaquannock ; within 20 years from the original 
settlement, when from the want of houses, the colonists sought shelter in the 
caves of the Delaware ; within 20 years from that time, — Wm. Penn erected 
Philadelphia into a City, and gave to it a Charter. From the earliest period of 
recorded time, history had presented no similar example to this. The pros- 
perity of the settlement was a perfect wonder to the statesmen of that day. 
But the wonder is explained by calling to mind the grand principles of LIBERTY 
upon which the colony was founded. In New England Church members only 
were permitted to be freemen of the colonies ; all others were disfranchised and 
persecuted. In Pennsylvania religious intolerance was unknown ; " errors in 
reliyion," said Penn, " are knoicn onl;/ to God." The arms of the colony were 
thrown wide open to every variety of sect in Christendom, to every shade of 
creed under Heaven. They were stretched out to embrace not alone the 
Catholic and Protestant, the Churchman and Puritan, the Conformist and 
Dissenter, but the Jew and the Mahometan were alike protected and secure. 
No sooner had the founder landed from the good ship Welcome, than he bade a 
hospitable welcome to every adventurer of whatever religious faith or political 
opinion, and gave to them all a certain and safe asylum. 

It was to these principles of policy and the mild punishment of transgressors, 
that the historian most attribute the happy and prosperous condition of the 
province. NVithout any, even the slightest collision with the Indians, but 
enjoying their confidence and friendship for nearly half a century, the colony 
flourished beyond all former example. In 1083, the j-ear succeeding the 
foundation of the English colonization, Penn writes to Lord North, " that since 
the last summer, there had stopped at Philadelphia sixty sails of ships," and to 
the Marquis of Halifax, " that he had conducted the greatest colony into America, 
upon his private credit, that had ever followed the fortunes of a leader." la 
1680 Robert Turner writes to Penn, that "within the space of three j'cars 
six hundred houses had been erected." Gabriel Thomas, an historian of the 
year 1090, predicts that Philadelphia will become a celebrated emporium. The 
town continued to advance with prodigious celerity in population, and the 
arts of life. During the second visit of Penn, that is, in 1701, he writes, " this 
year the customs amount to £8000 ; New York has not the half of it." 

From the year in which Philadelphia received its Charter as a city, we are to 
date its municipal existence. The corporate powers were amj)lified by the 
successors of Penn in 1780, but the limits assigned to the city in 1701, were 
preserved in the new enactment. But the colonial Assembly in five j-ears 
after the grant of the second charter, passed an act the sad consequences of 
which are entailed upon their posterity to the present day. The district of 
Bouthwark was chartered as a separate municipality, in 1794, instead of 
throwing the a)gis of the city charter over its flourishing population. This 
example was the parent of the multitudinous progeny which now compose our 
numerous and expanding city. As a pai^of his plan of empire in the new 
■world, Penn ordered a plot of ground of 10,000 acres, or twelve square miles, 
to be marked out as the territorial area of the future metropolis. Owing to 
the mistaken abamlonment of this policy, this land is covered — not by one 
great and undivided community, — but by at least neven co-ordinate and 
independent, perhaps jealous and rival towns, including together ajiopulation 
of 500,000 souls. Though forming but one body, of people, compacted together 
in close neighborhood, each town is as distinct from its fellows in local juris- 
diction and legal immunities, as Boston is from New Orleans. 

This is not the place, Mr. Chairman, nor this the occasion, to expatiate 
upon a topic so suggestive of reflections as the peculiar and anomalous coudi- 



15 

tion of our municipal affairs. Suffice it to say that history thus sets before us 
two conflicting examples — one by Penn, the other by his successors. Which 
of these examples should we adopt in order to promote our social well-being, 
or to place upon solid foundations the prosperity of a great Capital'? The 
question is a grave and delicate one. Whatever others may think, I declare 
in favor of blending these different jurisdictions into one ; I go for a union of 
this municipal heptarchy, as only less important to us than national union is 
to the whole country ! 

The ninth toast was — 

The Children of the Forest. May they be protected in the enjoyment of their 
hunting grounds until the Great Manitou shall call them to himself. 

Mr. 11. R. Schoolcraft, in replying to the above sentiment, said : 

The aborigines of this continent were the greatest wonder found in it. So 
long as the cjntinent was deemed to be a prolongation of Asia, or a remote 
part of the East Indies, thei-e was little doubt of their being from that part of 
the stock of the human race. But as soon as the Pacific Ocean and Behring's 
straits were discovered, men began vigorously to doubt about their origin, and 
have been doubting ever since. 

With our present knowledge of the temperature, winds and currents of the 
Indian Ocean, and the Pacific latitudes, it would be rather more wonderful 
that the population of the Asiatic coasts and islands should not, than that it 
should, have reached America. Such voyages could easily have been performed 
in their balzas and light floats, if they were designed by a migrating people, 
and if they were not designed, the drifting from island to island, in the course 
of years, was a natui'al mode of progress ; and it is as reasonable to suppose 
that the Indian tribes have been on this continent 3000 as 500 years. Indeed, 
it is far more so, for the greater length of time would account for the diversi- 
ties of languages and tribes. 

Viewed as a race, they are decidedly Asiatic. They not only have the lead- 
ing physical traits of Asiatics, but their mental organization is the same. They 
are not inductive men, like the Goths, and Celts, and Saxons, and Angles, but, 
rather, have a picturesque mind. They are prone to complain — prone to 
dwell on reminiscences of the past — little disposed to indulge in anticipations 
— little inclined to hope on any subject. Doubtless their complaints, since the 
Europeans came over, have had a pretty broad foundation in truth, for they have 
lost all, and we have gained all. Yet, I doubt if the Aborigines of any country 
have fared better, if as well. The old Britons, except on the rocky peaks of 
Wales, were scarcely left a foot-hold. The Romans hated and hunted them 
like deer, and the Angles and Saxons did the same. The Druids were 
slaughtered by hundreds, and it is no wonder, as some think, if Madoc and 
his followers found shelter here. 

But did the English do better to the aborigines of India ? Not a particle. 
They have coveted territory on territory, and kingdom on kingdom ; and they 
have never been slow, from the days of Lord Clive and Tippoo Saib, in bring- 
ing the last resort of kings — the ultima ratio regum — to bear upon their terri- 
torial questions ; as in the career of Bonaparte, a new battery of fifty field 
guns, was of more diplomatic weight than the most eloquent arguments in the 
world. Not less than one hundred millions of the inhabitants of India are now 
disfranchised and subjugated. Did France do better in Algeria? Not a whit. 
Ask Abdel-Kader. The sword makes law and the sword breaks law in Algeria. 
After four years of captivity, he is not even allowed to go back to his native 
country. 

The United States, on the contrary, have not taken the Indian territories 
unpaid for. The Indian, it is true, had neither "crown or cowl." He had 
some imagination, and some eloquence, but he did not evince much capacity 
to wield the sceptre — unless we except the Iroquois, and they chiefly threw 
their weight into the scale against us, in the great struggle of 1775 — which 
was indeed, as it is now seen, the struggle of mankind for rational liberty and 
self-government. 



16 

Pcnn found here the Lenno Lcnapees — the oldest member of the great 
Algonquin stock — which spread over half America. They received him kindly, 
and he treated them -well, and their descendants remember the era as the rule 
of the great and benevolent Miquon. His rule and government were equally 
the praise of those Indo-Greeks, the Irotjuois, better known to the English as 
the Six Nations, and they bestowed on him the distinctive name of Ouas. Eotli 
these terms are Indian equivalents for the name of Penn. 

But, whatever be the character and capacities of the Indian mind, they are 
our predecessors — our wards — our brothers. We owe them kindness, justice, 
benevolence. We owe them those great means by which nations are exalted 
— letterK, education, Chrktianity. They are, it is true, a lost link in the history 
of the human family, but without stopping to inquire where they were lost, or 
when they were lost, it is one of the highest duties of our nationality to wel- 
come them as men — to protect them as tribes, and, as a ('hi-istiau people, to 
cherish them. Aye, and to receive them, as we receive the emigrants of all 
Europe, into the gi-eat family of the American Union. There will, doubtless, 
arise, in these new legislators of the Indian race, future Logans and Garan- 
gulas to vindicate their history, and other Conassategos and Red Jackets to 
utter their eloquence. 

The tenth toast was — 

The Great Laic. The act that rendered Pennsylvania illustrious as the 
Pioneer of legal amelioration, and that has done more, bj* its holy influence 
and example, for human happiness than all the battle-fields over which the 
world has wept. 

IIox. George Suarswood responded. 

Mr. Sharswood said that he had to acknowledge the honor conferred upon 
him by the Committee of Arrangement, in imposing upon him the duty of 
responding to the toast just announced, with the regret, however, that the 
task had not devolved upon one with more time and ability to do justice to 
the subject. 

Our founder had well studied the science of government and laws, though 
he was no lawyer by profession. He drew his first principles on the subject 
from the most authoritative source. He held that " the glory of God Almighty 
and the good of mankind is the reason and end of government, and therefore 
government itself is a venerable ordinance of God." He was not a disciple of 
Sir Robert Filmer ; he did not mean that monarchy, or any particular form of 
government was divinely instituted — that "some men were born with saddles 
on their backs, and other men ready booted and spurred to ride them." At 
all events, it is by no means a just inference from his principles, that the 
people have not a right to change their form of government whenever it is 
proper and expedient to do so. So far from it, the legitimate deduction 
appears to be that any form which fails to accomjjlish the design of its insti- 
tution — tl<e glory of God and the good of mankind — ought to be changed; 
"that when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such 
form as to them shall seem most likely to eflfect their safety and hapi)iness." 
There is one legitimate inference from Mr. Penn's principles, however, not to 
be lost sight of at the present day — that until revolution has effected a change 
by the will of the people, the actual existence of any government, whatever 
may be its form or the modes of its administration creates the obligation of 
obedience. There is no higher law which dispenses with that obligation. 

Another of Mr. Penn's principles was, that " any government is free to the 
people under it, whatever be tlie frame, where the laws rule and the pcojjle are 
n party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy and confusion." 
He knew no more concise and perfect description of civil and political liberty 
than was contained in these few words. He composed and published his frame 
to advance, as he says, " the great end of government, viz. : to support power 



17 

in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power ; 
that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honorable 
for their just administration ; for liberty without obedience is confusion, and 
obedience without liberty is slavery." 

By this frame the General Assembly was the first year to consist of all the 
freemen of the Province. Accordingly we may say that the Assembly which 
convened at Upland on the 7th, and adjourned on the 10th of December, 1682, 
was the meeting of a pure Democi'acy. It would have been a solemn and 
touching sight to one who could have foreseen all its consequences in the dis- 
tant future — that first meeting. They came together the pioneers of the 
wilderness — stern, grave, and earnest men — prepared for toil, privation and 
danger — men of moral, rather than mere phjsical courage — their hands 
hardened by the axe's unwearied stroke in felling the primeval forest, and 
raising their rude log cabins, and thei'e, within the hearing of the yells of 
wandering savages of untried disposition, they adopted, in the short space of 
three days, sixty-one laws, — many of them, indeed all of them, the foundation 
stones upon which has been since erected the superstructure of the civil and 
criminal jurisprudence of this broad Commonwealth. It was a fitting intro- 
duction to that simple but noble code — the law about liberty of conscience — 
" that all persons living in this province, who confess and acknowledge the 
one Almighty and Eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the 
world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and 
justly in civil society, shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their reli- 
gious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship ; nor shall they 
be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place 
or ministry." 

Looking at the scope and spirit of our early laws and institutions, the cele- 
brated Montesquieu pronounced Mr. Penn a true Lycurgus ; that though the 
object of the one was to form a peaceful and of the other a warlike State, they 
resembled each other in the ascendancy they were able to acquire over the 
opinions, prejudices, and passions of the people. Mr. Penn infused his own 
spii'it into the laws, and certainly the whole history of our jurisprudence shows 
how largely we have drawn from these original fountains. The character of 
the code comports with its introduction. Moderate in its penal enactments — 
just and equal in its civil provisions — it is an instance unparalledin the world's 
history of the foundations of a great State laid in peace, justice, equality. It 
is necessary to refer merely to the abolition of capital punishment in all cases 
except for wilful murder, — that all prisons shall be work-houses — to the acts 
for the recording of deeds and registry of wills — for the regulation of process 
and pleading — for making lands chattels for the payment of debts — and that 
the laws should not only be printed for general information, but taught in the 
schools. There is one section of the great law worthy of especial note — under 
the title of numerous suits avoidable — of which our celebrated act about defalca- 
tion, passed in 1705, is but the re-enactment, and which is still the law of this 
State, almost in the very words of those primitive legislators who first assembled 
to make laws for themselves — a small baud of emigrants upon the banks of 
the river which flows by our doors. It was more than a half century after- 
wards before a similar enactment was to be found upon the statute-book of old 
England. 

Just and true is indeed the sentiment of the toast, that " the Great Law has 
done more by its holy influence and examples for human happiness than on all 
the battle-fields over which the world has wept." He did not wish, and he pre- 
sumed the Committee who framed this toast did not mean to be understood as 
.depreciating the true value of military services : — on the contrary, his settled 
opinion was that the maintenance of a proper military spirit among the people 
is essential to the liberty and progress of a State. "Where it exists even 
despotisms become comparatively harmless, as in Prussia, and when it is 
absent, even mild governments dwindle into imbecile and powerless tyrannies, 
as in Italy and Spain." We are too apt, however, to be carried away by the 
splendor of military success. Generals have always been the most available 

3 



18 

men. The world 1ms always bowed more implicitly to military genius than to 
civic talents. The Alexanders, Ciesars and Napoleons have carried with them 
more of the world's attention and applause than the Lycurguses, Solons and 
■William I'enns. Vet he who has wisely laid the foundations of a nation's 
liberty, prosperity and progress in an enduring constitution, and in just and 
equaflaws, has done far more for the solid and lasting happiness of the people 
than the leader who has added glory to their arms, lie who is instrumental 
in giving security, industry, education and religion to the precincts of home — 
he it is who should be crowned with unfading laurels — and whose monument 
is more glorious than a column cast from the captive cannons of a hundred 
Austerlitzes. 

The eleventh Toast was — 

The Illustrious Dead of the Republic — May their virtues survive in the living. 

In response to this, Mr. Rodert T. Coxead said : 

Mr. President — I feel that 1 have made a sufficient draft upon your patience 
to-daj', and I doubt whether even the knowledge that I am expected to speak 
to tliis noble sentiment will warrant a further trespass upon your attention. 

The very hopelessness of doing justice to that sentiment will excuse diffi- 
dence in the effort. Justice to the dead of our republic cannot be rendered 
in words ; yet it is nobly renrlered — rendered in the heart-throbs and tears of 
a nation — rendered in a gratitude intense and universal — wortby of the dead 
and of the living, and doing honor to both. 

The summons to graves over which a continent weeps has been sadly fre- 
quent of late : and hardly has the tolling bell for one patriot — (caught up and 
echoed from hill-top to hill-top until it rings over the far Pacific) — ceased to 
sound, before another knell announces another national calamity. It would 
seem as if He, in whose hand are the issues of life and death, looks in anger 
upon us. 15ut let us hope that it is not so. The Ilcvolution, rich itself in 
great men, left the seeds of a great race, the undcgenerate heirs of their 
genius and virtues. That race grew and rose and ripened together. Calhoun, 
and Clay, and Webster shone out from their high sphere about the same 
period. IIow long they shone, and how brightly — and how the nation rejoiced 
in their light — who does not know ? No wonder that, thus rising and culmi- 
nating together, shining with the same brilliance, from the same sky, they 
went down, at nearly the same time, beneath the same horizon, leaving it even 
when they arc seen no more, radiant with their glory. 

Our country, even in her tears, is happy in having so long possessed them ; 
for each had tilled the measure of the patriot's service and the patriot's fame, 
and each fell, even wondered at because he fell no sooner. 

Our country is happy in the wealth of virtue, and genius, and patriotism 
which she possesses — of which the grave is the guardian — and which she will 
possess forever — for it is beyond the reach of chance or change, of its own 
fallibility or of the wrongs of others. Our dead cannot be taken from us. 

Our country is happy that the departed have set their seal upon that which, 
as patriots, we value. Our Constitution belongs not onlj' to the living, but to 
the dead. And who would wrong the dead ? Our Union is not ours only ; it 
belongs to Washington and Jackson, to Clay and Webster. What Northern 
man would be divorced from tlie tomb at Ashland ? What Soutliern man from 
that at Marslifield ? Or what American would not rather die than live to 
tread upon the haunted, holy ground of Mt. Vernon — his father's grave — an 
alien, a stranger 'i No, all tliat is holy to the patriot is holier when it is 
tsanctificd, and because it Is sanctified by the dead — who lived for it here, and 
who now watch over it from their better habitations eternal in the heavens. 

Our country is hapjij', too, in her own warm, true, ntible heart — a heart 
that glows with gratitude for tlie illustrious dead — a gratitude too lofty to be 
reached by the low mists of prejudice — a gratitude that is the gbny of the 
country, and which, wliile it rewards the patriotism of the past, affords a noble 
incentive to that of the future. Greatness and virtue reproduce themselves 
by their example. It may be long before we have another Calhoun, or Clay, 



19 

or Webster ; but that time ■will come ; and when it does come, may the grati- 
tude of posterity be as warm and sincere as ours — it cannot be more so. 

The twelfth Toast was : 

Our Sister Societies. United with us in kindred pursuits. 
Mr. James W. Beekjiax, of New York, spoke briefly in answer to this 
toast. 

The thirteenth Toast was : 

The Sons of the Soil. AYherever they wander, may joy and gladness attend 
their steps. 

Bishop Upfold of Indiana responded as follows : 

Mr. President — In responding to this sentiment, at the request of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangement, I feel considerable embarrassment, from the fact that 
I cannot claim to be strictly " a son of the soil." I have not the honor to 
call Pennsylvania my birth place. A residence of many years, however, in 
the good old Commonwealth, may pei-haps entitle me to be considered an 
adopted son. Indeed it has so identified me in feeling with the Keystone 
State, and with so deep an interest in her character and welfare, that I in- 
dulge as strong filial affection and respect for her as if I were strictly a " son 
of her soil," and feel as much becoming " State pride," as if in some valley 
or on some mountain of her beautiful, fertile and rich domain, I had drawn 
my first breath, and received my earliest nurture. And now, though removed 
from what was my pleasant home for many years, in her busy Western metro- 
polis, and having, in the discharge of official duties, become very much a 
wanderer, I ever turn to Pennsylvania with undiminished interest in her pros- 
perity and advancement ; with strong, unimpaired, filial reverence and regard ; 
and with all the pride and affection of " a son of the soil," can with truth and 
emphasis say, in the language of one of England's sweetest bards — 

" Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see. 
My heart, untravcUeJ, fondly turns to Thee!" 

And I am free to say, moreover, that in the State in which I now sojourn, there 
are hundreds besides myself, most of them with far higher claims to be " sons 
of the soil" of Pennsylvania, who are ready to echo the sentiment — and who, 
from the strong attachment to their Fatherland, which seems to be characte- 
ristic of Pennsjdvanians, are prepared, from the depths of their " untravelled 
hearts" to add — 

" still" to my birth-place " turns, with ceaseless pain, 
Afld drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 

Indiana numbers a goodly portion of Pennsylvanians among her citizens. 
Some of her earliest settlers, the pioneers who ventured into her territory 
when it was from one end to the other the domain of the savage, emigrated 
from the honest old Commonwealth. And in more recent years, much of the 
numerical strength of Indiana, and very much of her bone and sinew has been 
derived from the sturdy yeomanry of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians are 
among her best citizens. They have carried with them the integrity, the 
thrifty habits, the patient industry, the indomitable courage and perseverance, 
with the agricultural skill, which so much characterizes " the sons of the 
soil," native or adopted. And these are all preserved unimpaired in the new 
home they have found in the West. If in travelling through the State, you 
perceive a farm of finer appearance than another, in better order, under more 
skillful cultivation, with barn, outhouses, and other farm appurtenances com- 
plete — I will say nothing of the dwelling^ house, for that, as in the land they 
have left, seems to be a minor consideration — you may be pretty sure it is 
cultivated and owned by a Pennsylvanian. The same creditable cliaracteris- 
tics are observable in those of her sons who are engaged in mechanical and 
commercial employments, and in professional occupations. In these you wil 
find the same honesty, industry, and perseverance as in the other — with a dis 



20 

position too, I must in all candor add, to dip a little into politics, and that 
pretty much on one side. They do no discredit to the State of their birth, 
however, in this, any more than in other matters, but honor it in all their 
ways, works and habits, presenting an array of honest thrift, of industry and 
enterprize, of moral habits and moral example, of which their fatherland need 
not to be ashamed. 

It is, however, so little in accordance with my habits to make a speech on 
an occasion like this, that I am surprized I have gone so far and said so much, 
without breaking down. And for fear of such a catastrophe, if I proceed 
much longer, I beg leave to substitute, for the remainder of an oration. A 
story, or rather two illustrative I think of the characteristics I have ascribed 
to the "sons of the soil," and which, I trust, will be regarded as not inappro- 
priate to the occasion, particularly Avbich has brought this pleasant company 
together, and to the laudable object of the Historical Society. They relate to 
two venerable men, who were among the earliest pioneers of the north west- 
ern section of the State ; and I narrate them, as they were narrated to me 
a few years ago on the spot, — substantially at least, for a treacherous memory 
may cause me to be inaccurate in details. 

Some fifty years ago — and that was a long time ago for this county, — a 
sturdy " Green Mountain boy" arrived at Presque Isle on Lake Erie, with a 
pack on his back, and an axe on his shoulder, seeking his fortune in a then 
almost impassable wilderness. At the public house he entered, a mere log hut, 
near the Fort, he inquired for employment. It was immediately furnished by 
the landlord, who engaged the new comer to chop wood for him — puncheons 
for floors, or hoop poles — 1 forget which. He was to receive as wages fifty 
cents a day ; but nothing was said about the price of board and lodging. At 
the expiration of a week he asked for his wages, which were paid him, but 
was immediately met by a demand, on the part of the cunning landlord, of 
seventy-five cents a day for board and lodging. There was a hearty laugh by 
the occupants of the bar-room, at the expense of the supposed greenhorn, 
which he took in good part. The settlement was completed, when the laugh 
was turned on the landlord ; who, upon asking the wood cutter where the pun- 
cheons or hoop poles were, was answered, they were " in the woods where 
they had been cut, and the place he might possibly find if he hunted carefully 
and patiently." The articles were sought for, but in vain — the landlord re- 
turned from the search unsuccessful — and the puncheons and hoop poles were 
not discovered for many years after, and were then found, after the scite of 
the present borough of Erie had begun to be cleared, on the spot on which the 
Coui-t House of Erie now stands. 

During the absence of the over-cunning landlord, the greenhorn, with his 
axe on his shoulder, made tracks for the forest, penetrated it some ten or 
twelve miles, found a lot of land to his liking, took its marks and boundaries, 
repaired to the Land office, made his purchase, received his title deed, and 
returned and begun to clear a farm. A few others had preceded him, and a 
small settlement had been begun. Late in autumn, as winter approached, an 
examination was ma'de of the quantity of food in the settlement, and it was 
found there was not enough for all. It was determined, therefore, in order to 
make it available for the winter, that the young, unmarried settlers, must seek 
employment elsewhere during the winter months. The decision was immedi- 
ately acted upon by the Green mountain boy. He betook liimself without 
delay to the woods, felled a large tree, made a "Dug-out" or Canoe, launched 
in Le Boeuf creek, filled his frail bark with such scanty provision as he could 
procure, descended in it to French creek, through that stream to the Alle- 
gheny river, and down that stream to Fort Pitt. Here he found a small set- 
tlement, a village of log huts adjacent to the Fort — but the inhabitants so far 
advanced in civilization as to have a sort of market house. He sought em- 
ployment at this place for the winter, but found great difficulty in obtaining 
it. After a few days of unsuccessful effort he mounted a butcher's block in 
the market house, and auctioned himself off as a laborer for three months, to 
the highest bidder. The novel plan succeeded — he found an employer. When 



21 

spi'ing came he received his wages and obtained his release. With his hard 
earnings he purchased some flour, bacon, salt, and other articles of food, em- 
barked in his " Dug-out," paddled his way up the streams he had descended 
and landed within six or eight miles of his wild home He spent several days 
in transporting his store of provisions, from his Canoe to his imbryo farm, 
carrying all on his back. This done, he built a log cabin, the rain descending 
on the roof of which — such was the peculiar shape of the ground on a sort of 
elevated ridge — on one side, flowed into streams running into the Gulf of 
Mexico, and on the other into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here he commenced 
his life of patient toil, and with such success, that for many years past he 
has possessed one of the largest and finest farms in Pennsylvania, and has at- 
tained not only competence, but independence. And he still lives, I believe, 
to enjoy in a green old age the fruits of his industry and enterprize. 

The other tale relates to the settlement of a land claim, in a somewhat novel, 
but entirely successful way, the successful party to which, and the narrator of 
the occurrence, was and is, for I believe he still lives, a neighbour of the for- 
mer. He was also an early settler, one of the pioneers of that portion of the 
State. He had " located" a tract of four hundred acres, and paid for it, in 
a twelve hundred acre section, and had been in undisturbed possession thereof 
for two or three years. At the end of that time he discovered that certain 
" squatters," four in number, had taken illegal possession of the entire sec- 
tion, and in order to secure a pre-emption title, had built a log cabin on the 
spot where the four tracts united. He sought to eject the intruder on his 
tract, but in vain. " At that day," said he to me, " there was no redress at 
law. For though there were courts and lawyers, the decisions of the one and 
the pleadings of the other commanded no respect whatever. The best man 
was the law — the strong arm maintained the surest title. After jawing about 
it," such was the language, " a good while, it was agreed on all hands that 
the best man should have the tract of land, and a day was appointed for the 
fight. It took place," said he, pointing to his dwelling house — "in that very 
building. I had just covered it in. We met in that room" — indicating it 
with his finger — "it had only an earthen floor. We sti'ipped to the buff, 
smeared our bodies all over with soft soap, so that no unfair advantage should 
be taken, went at it, and in half an hour," said he, his eyes sparkling at the 
recollection of his successful prowess — " he, my antagonist, cried enough, let 
up, the tract is yours." On this title I have continued to hold the tract, which 
I had previously fairly purchased, and I hold it still. And from this circum- 
stance, this tract is designated on the County Records as the "Speculator's 
Defeat Tract." " So mortified," continued my aged narrator, " was the man 
I flogged, that he instantly made tracks for a distant part of the country, in 
which he managed to thrive to such a degree, as to become one of the leading 
men of the Territory, and when it became a State was chosen its first Go- 
vernor." 

Mr. ArBREY H. Smith, introduced, with the following remarks, the first of 
the volunteer toasts : 

Mr. President — I do not think it presumptuous to call the times in which 
we live good. Nay, more. I believe that this will ever be counted the heroic 
age of the republic — the age of courage, energy, development. When in 
some remote future the historian limns the outline of our annals; this time and 
these days will stand sharp out in his picture in the strong colours due to 
their vigour of thought and intensity of purpose. Men labor now for truth 
as much as men ever did, for truth in all things and every where. On the 
outward limits of human knowledge are toiling an army of truth-seekers — 
look where you will, you see them giving labour, time and life, to their 
work. They triumph too — no department of human affairs is void of their 
triumphs. 

But, Sir, our Society deals with the past, and we look to it, not with the 
idle curiosity which would recall what had better be forgotten, but with the 
reverence that honors the past as the mother of the present and the still 



22 

grander future. Our past is eminently antl peculiarly the mother of the pre- 
sent. Republicans, democrats in verity as we are — so were those republicans 
and democrats who first swung their axes in the forests of New England and 
A'irginia. They were not, nor could be else. 

From them as from a primitive root grew every thing. How it grew in tliose 
old times, what truths it elaborated, and what triumphs glorify its annals, 
others are here most fit to tell. I sec before me men whose age, whose wisdom, 
whose means of knowledge, whose habits of life specially qualify them to the 
task. In the hope that some one of them may assume it, I propose this toast : 

Old Time.i, Old Truths and Old Triumphs. — With a hand for the future, we 
will still have a heart for the past. 

Mr. Samuel Breck was requested to respond, and said : 

" Old Times !" Can young Pennsylvania point to any in her annals? To find 
any period worthy of the epithet, me must consult her earliest liistory ; and 
there, indeed, without diving into very ancient times, we shall find the record 
of as wise and as able an administration of public affairs, by members of the 
Society of Friends ; by unsophisticated, honest and honorable Quakers, as the 
history any country can exhibit. 

William Penu, the great founder — the master spirit of every movement in 
those early days, taught his companions, in their first assembly, how to con- 
stitute a government for freemen, and enjoined upon them to weigh well the 
following maxim : " Freclom exists only where the laws rule, and thoj>eoj>le are 
parties to the laws." AVith this and other equally sound political precepts, he 
established constitutional provisions for peaceful government and religious 
freedom, which have continued to this day, with few changes, to be the firm 
platform, on which Pennsylvanians have j)laced their dearest privileges. 

Following the rules established by their illustrious leader, the Quakers, in 
the course of eighty years, increased a Colony of a few hundred to three hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants. And this vast multitude was thrown, from year 
to year, when in process of rapid growth, upon a territory covered with wood 
and owned by savages. 

To make room for the thousands that landed on the shores annually, the 
Indians were to be induced to remove; and to remove too, without causing discon- 
tent, and then was to be peaceably seated the German, who knew nothing of 
our language, laws or customs ; and along side, or in pretty close proximity, 
the English, Scotch, Welsh and Irish. Then followed a class of immigrants 
suited to give much trouble, called Bond-Servants or Iledemptioners, and 
mixed up with these was the negro Slave. 

Do you believe it possible, Mr. President, that a population so dissimilar in 
language, manners, religion, color and customs, could be made to dwell to- 
gether in happiness and thrift, without superior statesmanship ? Could these 
distinct and various elements. Sir, be made to harmonize, without the friend- 
ly sway of something in love and skill, akin to paternal affection ? It was the 
mildness of the laws, administered by the good Quaker, that brought about 
this exti'aordinary and happy result. No coercion, other than that of the law, 
was ever used. None, indeed, was needed ; for during the whole period of 
Quaker rule, which lasted nearly ninety years, not the slightest commotion or 
insurrectionary movement took place, unless we except the trifling flurry of 
the Paxon boys, and the occasional excitement on days of election, so that 
the absence of military aiil was never felt, nor did any organization of a 
militia force take place during the long period of Quaker power. 

Thus for several generations a succession of these peaceful, excellent men, 
bestowed upon a large community, (numbering at the time they relinquished 
the reins of government, three hundred thousand) that measure of happiness, 
which it is the aim of the purest legislators to reach, by means of mild, just 
and appropriate laws, suited to the condition of each and every citizen. Such 
was their practice, and such their eminent success. Can we, in contem- 
plating this passage in the history of our Old times, withhold from it the 



epithet of Old triumphs and Old truths. I think not, for the art of gOTCrning 
■was carried to perfection at that period, and claims our highest admiration. 

In the short space of eighty years, Penn's woodland was converted into a 
cultivated country, rivalling, in some districts the husbandry of Belgium. 
Savages were made to yield their land willingly, for a fair equivalent, to the 
industrious settler, and civilization, (with brotherly love) was established in 
all our borders, solely by the mild influence of Quaker rule. 

Some among us treat this picture of happiness as an affair devoid of ex- 
citement. They call them the dull annals of a people without spirit, having 
nothing in them to rouse the mind to action. 

The wars of the Indian chief, Philip, in Massachusetts, and even the ridi- 
culous pretence for harassing there the many poor creatures for witch-craft, 
and cruel persecution of Quakers, are adduced as passages fitted to stir the 
dull intellect, and produce, no matter of what cost, something brilliant and 
worth reading. 

]So doubt the brilliancy of our historic pages would have been increased, 
according to these critics, had they been adorned with Carolinas high sound- 
ing titles of Palatine, Margrave, Cassick and Barons ; or had Pennsylvania 
winked at an overt or covert trade with Pirates, or allowed their poor Indians 
to be kidnapped and sold as slaves in the West Indians. These things were 
allowed elsewhere in the Colonies, and made their annals more piquant to those 
who are in search of the picturesque. 

One black spot, however, disfigured our fair Quaker picture. I allude to 
Negro Slavery. The friends in power sought to abolish it at the beginning of 
the last Century, and actually passed a Colonial law, accompanied by a prohi- 
bitory duty of £20 per head on every negro imported ; but it was disallowed 
by the people in power in England, who left Slavery fastened upon us until 
the year 1780. 

Viewing then the calm, even, equitable and eminently just and successful 
rule of the people called Quakers, as an Old triumph of Old times, I conclude 
by offering the following Toast. 

The Quaker government of the Province of Pennsylvania, during the first 
eighty years of its history, distinguished alike for its ability, its wisdom and 
its unmatched success. 

Mr. Horatio G. Jones, Jr., introduced the second volunteer toast, and 
said — While we are commemorating the virtues of William Penn, the founder 
of our commonwealth, than whom few statesmen of his age are entitled to 
greater praise, it is no more than proper to refer to other American pioneers 
who suffered as great hardships as that noble apostle of Religious liberty. I 
shall not refer to the Pilgrim fathers of New England — the Catholics of 
Jlaryland, or the Cavaliers of Virginia — for their praises and virtues have 
been often sung — but I purpose to call attention to the Dutchmen of New 
Amstei'dam, between whom and the early settlers of Pennsylvania there 
were many strong ties of interest. The provinces of Pennsylvania and Dela- 
ware were, at one time, under their control, and as all present know, the 
records of those early days are filled with interesting accounts of the contests 
between the Dutch and the Swedes for the mastery of this portion of the 
newly settled country. I forbear to give the details of the mode of warfare 
which the Knickerbockers adopted, as I see before me one of their descendants 
— [Hon. James W. Beekman of New York] who, I doubt not, with the true 
spirit of a Netherlander, has attentively studied the history of those early 
days as related by that venerable historian, the famous Diedrick Knicker- 
bocker. 

But, Sir, there is another reason equally to the point why I propose to 
toast the settlers of the Hudson. As all are aware, the Hudson — then, as it 
is now called, "the North River" — and the Delaware — named by way of 
contradistinction, " the South River" — were discovered by one and the same 
person — the far famed Hendrick Hudson, whose unfortunate and untimely 
fate is lamented by every student of American history. 

Besides, Sir, our Province was under the government of the Duke of York, 



24 

and was purchased from bim by Williara Penn in August 1682, the year of 
his first visit to this country, and so highly did our Founder value the friend- 
ship of the early settlers on the Hudson, that after viewing the site of this 
great city, and even before he gave his people a form of government, he 
made a visit to the city of New York for the purpose, as he said, of paying 
" his duty to the Duke of York by visiting his Province." 

The friendly relations which were then established have subsisted until 
the present day, and far distant be the period when they shall be disturbed. 

The Keystone State has increased in population, in wealth, and in power, 
and has become a mighty commonwealth, while the Empire State with strides 
like those of a giant, has advanced, until it wields an influence almost un- 
bounded, upon the welfare of the Republic. 

Sir, the settlers of the Hudson were men of virtue, intelligence and bravery, 
and their descendants are now treading in the pathway which their noble 
ancestors first opened ; and the valley of the Hudson, sanctified by a thou- 
sand delightful memories, has become classic ground. 

We have reason to be proud of the fraternal intercourse which existed 
between the founders of these great States — and I know I am only expressing 
the feelings of all present, when I say that the descendants of "the South 
lliver" extend to the descendants of " the North lliver" the hand of a cordial 
and sincere friendship. 

Mr. Jones then read the following toast. 

The Original Settlers on the Hudson: Brave, hardy and humane; they 
opened the path of Empire, and afforded an example of those virtues that 
secured triumph to the Pilgrim Fathers of Amei'ica. 

Mr. James W. Beekman responded as follows : 

In thanking you, Mr. President, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
for the very cordial manner in which you are pleased to compliment the 
Netherlands founders of New York, it will, perhaps, be pardoned me, if I am 
tempted, in view of the eminence of your city and Commonwealth in all the 
attributes that can ennoble a meti'opolis, or a State, to claim for such a pos- 
terity a Netherlands beginning. 

The enterprize of Hudson opened to the world the South as well as the 
North river ; for, although he merely looked into the Capes of the Delaware 
in 1609, when seeking a passage to the North, and although Verrazani, in 
1525, almost a century earlier, had seen the land near Wilmington, Hudson 
first drew attention to the Delaware, as has been suggested by the gentle- 
man who preceded me. There is good reason to believe that Adrian Block, 
in the first vessel built on this continent, the Onrust — a little yacht of 
fourteen tons — visited the South river about 1616, and in the great ship 
New Netherlands, built at Manhattan by Wouter Van Twiller, Cornelius 
Jacobson Mey brought the first emigrants to the South river in 1623. Ameri- 
can ship building began on Manhattan. AVhere now is the Bowling Green, 
in New York city, was then the water's edge, and there was built the little 
Onrust, or Restless, in 1616. Probably on the eastern side of the "Capsee," 
or point where tlie East and North rivers divide, was launched the New 
Netherlands, a great ship of about 400 tons, the cost of building which gave 
serious offence, as a piece of extravagance, to the Directors of the West India 
Company. 

As early as 1604, a merchant of Antwerp, William Usselincx, had exerted 
himself to establish a company to trade to America from the Straits of Magel- 
lan to Terra Nova. Usselincx had himself visited the Spanish West Indies, 
and had formed the vastest expectations of the profit likely to enure from a 
Western commerce ; and he enumerated among the advantages of his enter- 
prize, that in the course of time the saving faith and gospel of Jesvis Christ 
may be planted there. The Company was formed. The States General were 
on the point of granting the charter of incorporation, when aflairs of State 
diverted their attention from private claims, and the matter was dropped. 

Usselincx, however, did not despair. Twenty years later he had become 



33 

a resident of Stockholm, and to his exertions there is due the great Swedish 
Company, authorized by Gustavus and the States, on the 2d July, 1626. The 
great Oxenstiern was a warm friend of the undertaking, but Usselincx, the 
Dutchman, was the father of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware. Fort 
Nassau, the earliest and the forgotten, was built by Cornelius Mey and his 
emigrants in 1623. Where was Fort Nassau? asks the antiquarian "as yet in 
vain, and the maps of the period, with a few exceptions, seem only to in- 
crease the doubt. The persevering labors of the Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey Societies, at present directed to this point, will soon determine its 
precise situation. Perhaps the best map extant, is Arent Roogeveen, probably 
published in 1675, which contains a number of soundings of the depth of 
water in the river, and appears to be altogether more accurate than the 
others. Roogeveen placed Fort Nassau nearly opposite the mouth of Schuyl- 
kill, and a little above. 

Next came Wm. Verhulst, in 1625, and at Trenton Falls, on an island, a 
settlement of three or four families of Walloons. In 1630 or 1631, ten or 
twelve servants of the West India Company were occupying a trading house 
there. Old Gabriel Thomas, in alluding to Stacey's Island as the place where 
the Dutch built only two or three hoiises, but made vei'y little improvement, 
probably referred to Verhulsten Eylandt. Mr. Broadhead, long known as 
devoted to Historical research, is about to give to Antiquarians a book on 
the Early History of New York, which abounds in the rarest materials for 
neighboring annals. To an acquaintance with his labors, I am indebted for 
many curious facts. 

1631 came De Vries, in the good ship Woivis, Captain Peter Heyn, and 
planted the ill-fated colony of Zwanendal. They built a brick house — but 
all perished in 1632 by an Indian massacre. 

1633, two years later, Arent Corsen purchased for the W. I. Company, of 
the Indians, Armenverids, a tract of land on the Schuylkill, near the spot 
where afterwards stood Fort Beversrede ; and in 1646, in the month of Sep- 
tember, Andries Hudde purchased from the savages a piece of land on the 
West shore, about a mile (four and a half miles English) from Fort Nassau 
to the North. This was the site of the future city of Penn, and Netherlands 
proprietaries held at the same time the two greatest cities of America. 

Fort Beversrede encountered the especial spite of the Swedes, who built a 
large house in front of the Fort, while a redoubtable Swede named Moens 
Kling, " with twenty-four men marching in ranks," cut down all the trees 
in the neighborhood. 

Fort Nassau was finally demolished by Stuyvesant in 1651, because it was 
too far up the river. 

But, Mr. Chairman, there is another aspect in which the pilgrim fathers of 
Pennsylvania and New York are to be regarded. We have been celebrating 
to-day with well merited and appropriate honors the landing of Wm. Penn — 
the christian, the philanthropist, the legislator, the first statesman who has 
demonstrated by expei'iment the omnipotence of the law of love — that eleventh 
commandment which includes all the other ten. 

The Dutch colonists, too, always respected the rights of Indians. They 
purchased land from the savages by honest barter, and Andries Hudde pur- 
chased, in 1616, the soil of Fort Beversrede as honestly as Penn, 35 years 
later, extinguished the Indian title to the lands he bought by the treaty at 
Shackamaxou. Unworthy servants of the West India Company were some- 
times guilty of wrong doing, but their orders were to do right. 

Just a century before Wm. Penn received from Charles II. the patent which 
made him proprietor of Pennsylvania, in July, 1581, the States General of 
Holland published to the world a declaration of independence, in which the 
great doctrines of popular sovereignty are set forth in worthy words, to be 
maintained by worthy deeds — " Subjects are not created for the Prince, but 
the Prince for the subjects," who may always abjure allegiance to a bad 
sovereign. For sixty-seven years the Netherlands struggled against these 
successive sovereigns of Spain, until the resistance became effectual, au«l 

4 



34 

civil and religious liberty, with toleration for all, became the birthright of 
every Dutchman. These liberties and freedom of conscience they carried to 
New Netherlands, and both North and Soutli River witnessed their plantings. 

Did the stern military ideas of Stuyvesant lead him to punish Brown for 
being a Quaker, by sending him to Holland, the Home Government sent him 
back, with a stern rebuke to the Director-General. Jesuit missionaries were 
ransomed from the Mohawks by Calvinistic Dutchmen ; Megapolensis, at the 
same time with the Jesuit Jogues, was striving to instruct the savages several 
years before Eliot, at Watcrtown and Dorchester. 

The Waldenses fleeing from Savoy took refuge in Amsterdam. Cavaliers 
and Baptists fled from New England to Manlmttan for protection and liberty 
of conscience. The minister and schoolmaster accompanied ihe emigrant, 
and in 1657 Domine Everardas Wclius, with 400 Hollanders, settled at New 
Amstel. So great even then were the attractions of the Delaware, that 30 
families left Manhattan and removed thither. 

Penn founded everything anew. Coming to his new possessions with ample 
resources and numerous settlers, the city where we now commemorate his 
fame sprang to maturity more wonderfully than even the modern cities of 
the West. Old Gabriel Thomas, who lived fifteen years after in Philadel- 
phia, and came over, as he says, in the year 1681 — the ship's name was the 
John and Sarah of London, Henry Smith, commander — describes, with 
pride, the improvements of the place. " I saw," says he, " the tirst cellar 
when it was digging for the use of our Governor, "William Penn." And he 
describes Philadelphia as having above 2000 noble houses in 1G97. There 
are above 30 carts. "Some lots," said he, "that might have been then 
purchased for three pounds, within the space of two years were sold for a 
hundred pounds a-piece ; and these lots wei'e first laid out within the compass 
of about twelve years." 

Within one year from its founding, your city contained nearly one hundred 
houses; at the end of two years, 2500 inhabitants. New Amsterdam had 
no such growth. In 1656, a survey by Capt. Konyok showed 120 houses 
and only 1000 souls, forty years after its settlement. In the same year, 
there were four clergymen of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Nether- 
land; and I may mention, in passing, that in 1561 there were salt works at 
Coney Island, since so famous, where Dick De Wolf manufactured sea salt. 

Manhattan sufi'ered under the commercial thrift of the company which had 
established its colony for trade, and trade alone. Pliiladelpliia, early set 
free from all unworthy shackles, and practicing the holy precepts which her 
name implies, has won a name proudly eminent in letters, morals, and iu 
arts. May I be permitted to propose a toast ? 

The present dwellers upon the Delaware, worthy descendants of the ancient 
settlers on the South River, have nobly trod the path of Empire which their 
forefathers pointed out. 

Mr. Wm. Rawle, in introducing the third volunteer toast, said : 

After so many interesting toasts and so many eloquent and stiri'ing addresses, 
it requires no small degree of courage to offer another toast, and still more to 
attempt to address this company; the more so, in my own case, as the duty 
which I understood had been assigned to me, has, as I have been informed a 
very short time ago, been changed and connected with dift'erent subjects. 

No one, however, has reason to complain at being called upon to offer such 
a toast as that annexed to my name, and I h.ave only to regret that it has not 
fallen into hands more capable of suddenly casting aside one subject and adopt- 
ing another. 

The State of Maryland, so closely connected with us by geographical posi- 
tion and mutual interest, may, like Pennsylvania, trace back her prosperity 
and happiness to the introduction of those principles which were implanted by 
her illustrious founder. 

Lord Baltimore, the proprietary of a large and fruitful territory, divided 
into two parts by an immense inland sea, into whose bosom a thousand tri- 



35 

butaries empty themselves ; bounded on one side by one magnificent river and 
intersected by another, headed his little band of colonists, and at St. ISIary's 
planted the cross with all the ceremonies and solemnities of the most imposing 
form of religion known in the Christian world. 

Penn, the proprietary of a territory more vast and abounding in greater re- 
sources, led his pilgrims to the shores which were to be the scene of his mis- 
sion ; plain, unadorned men, in all the plainness and simplicity of a new reli- 
gion, which had sprung up under the auspices of a humble and unknown 
individual, which met with no favor or respect from the world, and which, 
until it was adopted by William Penn, numbered no man of worldly conse- 
quence as a member. 

AVhat points of sympathy or union could there be between Lord Baltimore 
and his colony and William Penn and his ? — the Catholic and the Quaker. 

Though the external symbol of the cross was not planted in the soil of Penn- 
sylvania, it was deeply rooted in the breast of the founder. 

Though the visible cross was upreared amidst all the magnificent ceremonies 
of the Catholic church, yet the pure and saving doctrines of Him who died 
upon the cross for the salvation of man, warmed the heart and enlightened the 
views of Baltimore. 

The star of peace and happiness did not shine alone for the Catholic or the 
Quaker. 

They acknowledged the right of all mankind to seek and enjoy its benign 
influences according to the dictates of their own consciences. 

With opinions at variance in doctrine, and still more in forms and discipline, 
with temporal interests which had in them the elements of discord, they united 
in proclaiming to that portion of the new world which was theirs, universal 
religious freedom. 

AVhat could more emphatically illustrate the ■wisdom and the goodness of 
their characters ? 

In what manner could the value of .the principles they inculcated be more 
beautifully illustrated than in the subsequent history of their respective pro- 
vinces, now great and powerful States ? 

Some of the descendants of Lord Baltimore are still living in the land of their 
forefathers. 

And we have the gratification of numbering among our guests, the represen- 
tative of William Penn in the person of his great-grandson. 

If the great-grandson of William Penn could carry his mind back to those 
primitive times when little of this great and flourishing State was reclaimed 
from the hand of the savage, and the dreary forests resounded with the howl 
of wild beasts — when the habitations of civilized man were confined to the nar- 
row limits of the river shore — when habits and manners were plain and simple 
— when houses were deemed sufficient if they served to protect the indwellers 
from the stormy elements, and food and raiment were designed to supply actual 
wants — I say, if he could carry his mind back to those primitive times, and 
compare them with what he has seen since his short sojourn among us, he 
would be lost in admiration and wonder. 

The narrow strip to which the sparse population of Pennsylvania was then 
confined, has been expanded to the utmost limit of its vast territory, and a 
population of between two and three millions is spread over its surface. 

The trackless forest has given way to flourishing and populous towns, and 
innumerable and fertile farms, which spread prosperity and happiness every 
where. 

Even the rugged mountains, which were considered worthless excrescences 
on the fair face of nature, teem with boundless wealth, brought into active 
operation by the hand of industry. 

Our magnificent rivers, over which the painted Indian paddled his log canoe, 
now bear upon their bosoms, or through the canals they feed, an immense and 
rapidly increasing commerce. 

And Philadelphia, what was it when visited by William Penn, little more 
than a century and a half ago, and what is it when visited by his great-grandson ? 



36 

I sliall not attempt a comparison, but I may be allowed to say that the caves, 
and few log cabins, and ill-constructed shanties which formed the habitations 
of the first settlers, have yielded to streets of palaces, and the busy marts of 
commerce. 

The plain and simple manners and tastes of our forefathers have been driven 
out by luxury, elegance and refinement, which were then only known in the 
metropolitan cities of Europe. 

Perhaps we have advanced too far and too fast in the path of luxury. But 
to me, at least, it is a source of pleasing reflection that some of the coloring of 
our ancestors still tinges our character. 

We have been called the tjuaker citj', and a drab colored population. 

I accept the appellations with pleasure, not as terms of derision in which 
sense they have been applied, but as highly complimentary and gratifying; for 
they imply that we have not entirely cast otf those features of sobrietj-, sim- 
plicity, industry, and honesty which marked the character of our ancestors. 

But perhaps I have been led to say too much of my honored native State. 

This was natural at such a meeting of the Historical Societj^ of Pennsyl- 
vania, as a member of which I take great interest in all its concerns. 

This Society has done much good in rescuing from oblivion many important 
facts which otherwise would have been lost. 

But it is not to herself alone that she is indebted for all the treasures she 
possesses. 

It is a source of congi'atulation to the Historical Societies of every State that 
their sister States have felt the importance of forming them, and among them 
that of Maryland is not the least in importance and usefulness. 

I regard Historical Societies in our respective States as having strong claims 
to encouragement and support. 

They not only mutually assist each other in furthering the common objects 
of their creation, but they form a bond of union between the States them- 
selves, now so loudly called for by every patriot, and so absolutely essential to 
our existence as a free, independent, and happy nation. 

I cannot but reflect with horror upon the bare possibility of these pillars of 
our national edifice being broken and thrown down, and all that we hold dear 
involved in a common ruin. 

I have endeavored very faintly to point out some of the blessings which have 
flowed from the adoption of the Christian policy of religious freedom in Penn- 
sylvania. 

The same picture of the same happy result may be painted of INIaryland. 

Look on her vast improvements, her railroads and canals, her beautiful city 
of hills and monuments — her happy, industrious, Avealthy population, and who 
shall say that these gardens, like those of Pennsylvania, have not flourished 
under the fertilizing influence of the waters drawn from the well of religious 
liberty. 

Permit me to off"er as a toast : 

Maryland — Our Sister in the establishment of Religious Liberty in our land. 

Mr. Brantz Mayer, of Baltimore, who was expected to reply to this senti- 
ment, was unavoidably absefit, but sent the following letter, which was appro- 
priat«ly prefaced with some brief remarks, and read by Mr. John Cadwalader, 

Letter from Branlz Mayer, of Baltimore. 
To Edward Armstrong, &c., a Committee of the Historical Society of Penn'a. 
Gentlemen — The Maryland Historical Society received your invitation to 
elect and send one of its members as its representative at the festival you pro- 
pose holding in memory of the illustrious founder of Pennsylvania. At its last 
meeting our Society honored me with the appointment, and I am indeed sorry 
that I was not present, so as to enable the members to select some one else to 
perform this pleasant duty, inasmuch as a professional engagement will un- 
avoidably take me elsewhere. You will not, however, fail, I hope, to convey 



37 

to your colleagues around the social board our Society's cordial thanks for this 
friendly remembrance. It will be a source of sorrow to our members that they 
were not represented as you desired on this occasion — even so feebly as they 
would have been by myself Maryland and Pennsylvania have many common 
historical ties independently of their geographical union ; our land was, indeed, 
an object of contention between the early proprietors ; but when wars began 
our people went shoulder to shoulder through all their dangers, from the mo- 
ment when our Chase, our Carroll and their colleagues signed the sacred de- 
claration within that venerable Philadelphia Hall, which the whole world now 
considers consecrated to the great principle of National Independence. 

It is true that certain worthy gentlemen, known in history as "Mason and 
Dixon," did actually venture, upon a memorable occasion, to "run a line" 
betwixt us ; yet we all knew that those excellent persons, with all their skill, 
were never able to produce any other than a "■mathematical line," which science 
defines to be length without breadth or thickness. Other more tangible lines 
have since crossed or welded us together. The iron road and the metallic wire 
pass it with permanent security, sending our people or their thoughts to and 
fro without hindrance. Nay, we have not only fought, travelled and traded 
together until our material interests are blended, but we have often gone " over 
the border" on tenderer and dearer forays, and many a Maryland and a Penn- 
sylvania matron honors and adorns our interchanged homes. 

Well, then, may Maryland send hearty greetings to your noble Keystone 
State, which has consolidated the arch of our Union. Calvert and Penn were 
the founders of literature among the forests of this western world, and from 
their noble plantings have sprung the national principles on whose progressive 
stability the hopes of freedom must repose. 

Allow me, as an appropriate sentiment, to offer — The memory of these two 
illustrious men. 

AVith great respect, Beantz Mayer. 

The fourth volunteer toast was : 

The Laborers in. the Vineyard of American Histonj. Their efforts have been 
worthy of their theme. — Their theme would reward a Thucydides. 

In reply to which the committee received the following from 

Mr. Charles J. Ingeksoll: 

Dear Sir: — The tyranny of the press which by more than peine forte et dure, 
extorts speeches before their delivery, a Ctesarean operation to which I never 
will submit — fatal, let me tell you and all other nascent orators, to one of the 
best powers of our country, public speaking — and one of those violations of 
truth, a fraud, become habitual with the press — -that tyranny, as I detest all 
tyrants, ought to make my consistency refuse the request of your note of the 
24th inst. But as your humble servant I answer it, that while I had not put 
pen to paper, I did not go to the festival altogether without some cogitations, 
as well as I can recall them, as follows — 

I happened that day to be again reading DeTocqueville's Democracy in 
America, where he writes, "America has till now had but a very small num- 
ber of remarkable writers ; she has no great historians — does not count one 
poet. The inhabitants regard literature, properly speaking, with a sort of 
disfavour. Third rate cities in Europe publish every year more literary works 
than the twenty-four States of the Union together." 

This disparagement is not the ejaculation of any cockney itinerant, but of 
a learned foreigner admiring this country and disposed to extol its institutions. 
Why then his thirteenth edition of that contumely published in the year 1851 ? 
Because we Americans are false to ourselves. Not to go beyond history, who 
reads Ramsey's History of the Revolution, or Stanhope Smith's continuation 
of it to the Treaty of Ghent ? or Marshall's Life of Washington ? Certainly 
not one in ten thousand of those who dwell with delight on Macaulay's absur- 
dities against Penn, nor one in twenty thousand of the doters on David Cop- 
perfield. 



38 

Then I bad meditated some animadversions on Macaulay's pleasant, and if 
you please, charming, but false and foolish relations of bastard princes and 
strumpet duchesses and his despicable misrepresentation of Penn — the founder 
of a Commonwealth already greater than Scotland — a great conservative re- 
former of legislation, of jurisprudence, of Society, no red republican, but a 
pious and provident founder of free government on the Christian Religion. 

I would have insisted that unless diction and fiction be preferable to plain 
English and truth, Proud's History of Pennsylvania is a better book than 
Macaulay's History of England. 

An«l with that assertion I intended to connect some notice of Stanhope 
Smith's continuation of Ramsey's history, an excellent narrative of important 
events, and as Pr. Smith was president of Princeton College while I was there, 
I would have said something of that exemplary divine, fine scholar, eloquent 
preacher, accomplished gentleman, like hundreds of others like him, totally 
eclipsed by inferior Europeans viewed through American eye-glasses. 

Finally, as well as I remember, I would have quoted the recent article in .the 
London Times, which says, that America seems determined to have a literature 
of her own, as well as other things, and that when Americans set about any- 
thing, they are very sure to effect it. 

Some such eff"ort at American independence in literature — " Let independence 
be our boast," you know is the chorus to Hail Columbia, would have been the 
tenor of my audacity. 

I am, very sincerely, y'rs, 

C. J. IXGERSOLL. 

Nov. 26, '52. 

Dr. A. L. Elwyn, introduced the following as the fifth volunteer toast : — 

The Army and Navy. — Their battles have been those of Right ; their 
triumphs those of Humanity ; their glory is the glory of the country. 

On an occasion like this, Mr. Chairman, when we come together to celebrate 
the advent on tliis continent of a man of Peace, a harangue upon the glory 
acquired in war by your citizens, can hardly be considered appropriate. It 
would be better left to the Hustings, to the vehemence of the stump, or the 
orgies of a Fourth of July. 

But, Sir, on all and every occasion, under any and all circumstances, I pre- 
sume an American is at liberty to show feeling, or even enthusiasm, when he 
speaks of those whose deeds have made his country famous — in whose glory 
he himself shares — by whose reputation he himself is honored. It would 
argue a low degree of patriotism, and a temperament somewhat too stoical, if 
a citizen of this country, could listen to the narration of the heroism of his 
fellow countrymen, without pride, or know that their conduct had given a 
new impulse to national gi-eatness, without a feeling of triumph. It matters 
not how deep and strong his principles may be, which inculcate peace, for- 
bearance, or toleration of wrong, even to non-resistance, his manly nature, 
and his love of liis country, will stir every pulse, as report brings to him, and 
fame spreads far, the victories of his country. This is natural and not to be 
resisted, however, the lieart may suppose itself steeled by indifference, or 
made cold and dead by the struggles of faction, and the animosity of political 
strife. Rut, Sir, our wars have not as yet been wars of ambition ; no one 
man has brought them on us for self-elevation, or personal aggrandizement. 
They have been wars of defence, and not of aggression, wars ordered by the 
people, and carried through by the people. They have increased, too, the 
political wisdom of the world. In all past times, tyrants and oligarchies have 
made wars for tlieir own particular ends, but we have told the world a secret, 
that a nation, and every man in that nation, will raise his arm in defence of a 
principle, and risk for it, in the chances of battle, his life and his fortune. 

We have also shown the world, that roused by the occasion, our citizens, of 
their own will, "by just revenge intlamcd," will not only enrol themselves, 
a-s the soldiers of their country, but calmly prepare for the terrible necessities, 
of battle, by a quiet submission to the stern severities of discipline. Such 



39 

men are patriots as well as soldiers, men of peace, and the gallant defenders 
of their country, men who, on this occasion, when we celebrate the landing of 
the great Friend and the Man of Peace, merit our praise and our grateful 
remembrance. 

Gen. Robt. Patterson, in replying to the toast said : — 

It gives me great pleasure, Mr. President, to comply -with the request of the 
committee of arrangement, and of the officers of the army present, in respond- 
ing to this toast. I thank you. Sir, and the gentlemen of the Society, for the 
well-deserved compliment paid to the army and navy, and for the cordial 
manner in which the sentiment was received. There are, I believe, some 
gentlemen of the Navy present, who will do justice to that gallant arm of the 
service, and I will, therefore, in the few words I have to say, refer to the 
Army only. 

While I could not, under any circumstances, fail to embrace the oppor- 
tunity your kindness affords me, I do so the more readily, because I am no 
longer in the army. I can, without indelicacy, speak of my late companions 
as they deserve to be spoken of, and my testimony in their behalf, will at 
least, have the merit of being disinterested as coming from one, whose con- 
nexion with them is severed forever. 

You have truly said. Sir, that " their battles have been those of right." 
I believe with you, that every war in which our country has been engnged, 
from the war of the revolution to that with Mexico, has beeu a just and 
righteous war, and I rejoice, that a body of gentlemen who form no opinion 
lightly or inconsiderately, deliberately affirm the fact. But for this, the army 
can claim no credit. The honor of being right, rests with the distinguished 
men who composed the administration of the general government when war 
was declared. The soldier, it is true, will fight with a stouter heart and 
stronger arm, when fully confident of the justice of his cause, but it is not for 
him to question the authority which sends him to the field. 

It is equally true, and here. Sir, the glory is all their own, that "_ their 
triumphs" have invariably been " those of humanity." With them, victory 
has ever been crowned by mercy, and no outrage on a vanquished foe has tar- 
nished their renown or sullied a page of their country's history. 

In the campaigns on both lines in Mexico, from the accomplished com- 
mander-in-chief down to the recruit of the occasion, a common determination 
pervaded the army to respect the rights and protect the persons and property 
of the conquered enemy. That army governed, people hailed the advent of the 
American army, because of the protection it afforded them from the rapacity 
of their own, retiring to rest at night and going forth to their daily labor in 
the morning with a sense of security never enjoyed before or since. 

It must be to you, gentlemen, and to every American, a source of proud 
reflection, that your little army of veteran regulars and gallant volunteers 
carried your young flag from battle-field to battle-field always in victory, and 
from the day it landed at Corpus Christi until it left the shores of the enemy's 
country, unstained by a single act of oppression or inhumanity. 

The army has faithfully and gallantly defended the rights and upheld the 
honor of the nation. I ask you, gentlemen, to unite in protecting it from 
ungenerous assault and the possibility of injudicious legislation.^ I do so, 
because the opinion is gaining currency, and to some extent in high places, 
that a regular army is unnecessary in time of peace. If this mischievous 
theory shall ever be carried into practical effect, its results will teach the 
country a costly lesson. The present regular army is indispensable for border 
service and frontier protection, and is barely sufficient for those purposes. 
At this moment, to protect the South Western frontier, and prevent an Indian 
war, the government has been compelled to leave with scarcely a guard, many 
posts on the seaboard, costing millions to construct, and of the last importance 
in the event of a war with a maritime power. This occurs, too, when the 
intervention of a ir.ilitary force may at any moment become necessary to 
strengthen the arm of civil power in arresting the profligate schemes of those 



40 

■who, in reckless disregard of solemn national obligations, as well as of the 
rights and feelings of a people among our earliest and most constant friends, 
and for purposes purely and exclusively selfish and sinister, seek an occasion 
for entailing on the country the horrors and crimes of an unnecessary and 
unjust war. 

Every officer, regular or volunteer, who has served in the field, will, I think, 
concur with me, that a good well-disciplined army is essential as a nucleus, 
on which in war, new regulars and volunteers may form, and that the require- 
ments of the country are fully met, in what we now have and ought to keep, 
the best army of its size in the world, with officers of the line of the highest 
order of professional ability, and a well organized general staff, including an 
admirably selected body of medical gentlemen, and an engineer corps, perhaps 
unequalled, certainly unsurpassed in any other service. 

To such an army, and to such volunteers as we had in the war with Mexico, 
and will have again, when occasion may require, the honor of the country may 
safely be confided. 

Mr. John M. Read, proposed the following as the sixth volunteer toast : — 
The Press. — The Sword and Shield of Truth and Freedom. 

Prefacing the sentiment with the following remarks, he said : — 

A Free Press can only exist in a Free Country, and even there, it must be 
secured from unjust persecution by the intervention of a popular tribunal ; I 
mean, the trial by Jury. This is its shield. When thus protected in its 
free discussion of the Government, and of the laws — of public measures and 
public men, and of the different branches of the administration, whether exe- 
cutive, legislative, or judicial, the press becomes in its turn, the sword and 
shield of truth and freedom. 

Yet the trial by jury in criminal cases, is but a mockery, unless that tribunal 
is free in the exercise of its legal powers, to declare those innocent whom its 
members believe to be so. This has always been the law of Pennsylvania, and 
to its founder William Penn, is due the praise of having established it as the 
settled doctrine of England and America. 

Where there is no preliminary license to print, the mode of attacking the 
press is by information or indictment, and if the just powers of the jury can 
be usurped by the Judge, who is a permanent officer of the government, it can 
be as successfully muzzled as in a despotism, where it lives on the will of one 
man. 

By the English law, a jury always had an undisputed right to find a general 
verdict in criminal cases of guilty or not guilty, and if they acquitted the 
prisoner, no power known to the constitution could revise or reverse its deci- 
sion. This principle was boldly proclaimed by Col. Libburne, in the times of 
the Commonwealth, and secured his acquittal ; and in the reign of Charles II., 
two Quakers as they are styled, Penn and Mead, contended for the same doc- 
trine, and succeeded, for Bushell's case which grew out of it, solemnly decided, 
that the jury had a clear and undoubted I'ight to find a general verdict, and 
that they could neither be imprisoned, nor fined, nor questioned, for its 
exercise. 

William Penn came to America, bringing with him this sacred portion of 
the English law, and his earliest acts of government, recognize it as one of the 
foundations upon which he rested the future prosperity of his settlement. 
According to this well settled constitutional principle, the jury in criminal 
cases are the judges of the law and the facts, and Andrew Hamilton, the cele- 
brated Philadelphia lawyer, stated it as an unquestioned rule of law, in the 
Provincial Supreme Court of New York, in the case of Peter Zerger ; for his 
services in which case, he received the thanks of the corporation of New York, 
and the freedom of the city. 

"Trial by jury shall be as heretofore," say all the Constitutions of this 
State, and our present one adds, "and the right thereof shall remain invio- 
late." 



33 

This clause of tbe constitution has never, in this point, been disregarded or 
evaded by any Pennsylvania Judge ; and I am certain never will be ; for those 
high stations will always be filled by men too deeply imbued with the pi-inci- 
ples of civil liberty, to wish to encroach upon the settled rights of the tribunal 
of the people. 

In England, the same doctrine confirmed in the case of the seven Bishops, 
remained undisturbed until about the year 1729, when in indictments for libel, 
a contrary rule was adopted by the judges, in spite of the arguments of 
Camden and the eloquence of Erskine, which gave rise to Mr. Fox's libel act, 
which restored the old law, putting libel on the same footing with all other 
criminal cases. All the English Judges from the time of Lord Ellenborough, 
have treated this as simply a declaratory act of what the law was, and not as 
enunciating auy new principle. 

The law of England is therefore exactly the same as the law of Pennsyl- 
vania on this subject, as declared by the judges of both countries. Such also 
has at all times been the law of Scotland. 

There is one other point intimately connected with the freedom of the press, 
I mean the freedom of elections, upon which head, not only Pennsylvania, but 
the United States, (and I hope England soon will,) owe a lasting debt of grati- 
tude to Williaiu Penn. 

The vote by ballot had been practised in the latter days of the Roman 
Republic, but was disapproved of by Cicero, because the vote of the plebeians 
was thus made secret, and was not known to the patricians. It had been 
introduced in a modified form in the Republic of Venice, and was advocated 
by Sir Thomas More, the Chancellor of Henry the Eighth, in his Utopia. The 
same method of elections, forms a part of the scheme of polity traced out by 
Sir John Harrington, in his Oceana ; but it was reserved for William Penn, 
solemnly to adopt it as a fundamental principle in his Frame of Government, 
as the best preservative of the purity of elections, and of the civil and religious 
liberty which he had planted in our favored soil. 

Our revolutionary fathers incorporated this principle of the secret ballot 
into our earliest constitution and by immediate legislative enactment, carried 
out the principle of inviolable secrecy to its utmost extent 

The Constitution of Pennsylvania has in the fewest possible words, marked 
out the distinction between secret and open voting, and has extended the 
former to all cases of election " except those by persons in their representa- 
tive capacities who shall vote viva voce." 

This principle of vote by ballot prevails almost universally in the United 
States, and in many of them is secured by constitutional provisions. In two 
States, where the vote was formerly an open one, the method of the secret 
ballot has been introduced within the last two years, with entire success ; and 
even England has allowed it in one of her dependencies, the Ionian Republic ; 
and the dreadful scenes of bribery, corruption, and intimidation, which attend 
every election of members of Parliament, are paving the way for the introduc- 
tion of William Penn's sovereign remedy, the ballot-box, into the country of 
his birth. 

These two great popular powers ; trial by jury, and the vote by ballot, 
secure the freedom of the press, which in return, must cover them with its 
shield, whilst it uses its sword to cut down all those enemies of liberty, who 
would lay their sacrilegious hands upon either or both of these pillars of our 
free constitution. 

Mr. Morton McMichael responded to the sentiment of Mr. Read, as 
follows : — 

Mr. President : The whole company, I am sure, is under obligations to the 
distinguished gentleman who has just addressed us, for his excellent and elo- 
quent exposition of the services rendered by our illustrious founder, to the 
cause of free speech and tree writing; and it is especially my duty, to acknow- 
ledge that obligation in behalf of the newspaper press which I am called upon 
to represent. 

5 



' ' tit* 



fll 



34 

Undoubtedly, Mr. President, the public press of this country is a most 
potent instrumentality, either for good or for evil, as it may happen to be 
directed. How, indeed, could it be otherwise, now that steam has brought us 
into almost daily communicaticn with continents, separated from us by inter- 
vening oceans ; and information of all kinds, whether foreign or domestic, 

"horsM 
Upon the piglitless couriers of the air," 

travels with a speed, outstripping even the lightning. It is a matter of such 
common occurrence, as no longer to excite special remark, that tidings of 
European affairs, but little more than a week old, are read and discussed at 
the same moment by the fish merchant of Halifax and the cotton broker of 
New Orleans ; and the period will soon arrive when whatever transpires in 
London, or Paris, or Vienna, or St. Petersburg, or Constantinople, or any of 
the leading capitals of the old world, will, within a few hours, be made the 
subject of commentary, perhaps of controversy, in every considerable village 
from the St. Croix to the Rio Grande. 

Already, indeed, so far as relates to the diffusion of intelligence, the prayer 
of the enthusiastic lover has been realized, and both time and space "have been 
practically annihilated on the land ; and the far down depths of the surging 
sea, inaccessible to man's approach, and heretofore unmanageable by man's 
skill, are beginning to yield to the magnetic — may we not say magical — influ- 
ences of the sub-marine telegraph. In an age of marvels like these — with such 
facilities for the interchange of thought — among a people able to read, and 
addicted to reading, to whom newspapers are supplied at every cross-road, the 
power of the press cannot be easily over-estimated. 

I wish I could truthfully say. Sir, that this power is always applied to wise 
and wholesome ends. I am sorry to be obliged to confess that the reverse is 
too frequently the case. Occupying a territorial domain, which, stretching 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, includes every variety of soil, and climate, 
and production, and embraces within its yet undefined borders, men of all 
nations, conditions, classes, pursuits, sects and creeds — among whom every 
doctrine, however absurd, has its advocates ; every practice, however dan- 
gerous, its defenders; every scheme, however wild or wicked, its champions ; 
and with the public sentiment, which controls the law, opposing but few 
barriers to the most unlimited, nay, the most licentious expressions of opinion, 
it is inevitable that in some of its parts, the press of the United States should 
be occasionally disfigured by crude suggestions, and erroneous ideas, and 
impracticable theories, and visionary speculations, and false and pernicious 
teachings. Nor is this the worst. In some of the larger cities, where any 
one, too indolent to obtain the means of support by proper exertion, whose 
malignities prompt, or whose necessities re(iuire him to earn his daily bread 
by making of his life a daily lie — any one who can buy, or borrow, or beg, or 
steal a ream of paper, and procure the xise of a case of types, can set up what 
he calls a newspaper, and give to it a miserable existence, a sort of " death in 
life," by pandering to evil passions; by ministering to brutal appetites; by 
seeking to gratify low, and coarse, and perverted tastes ; by envy and malice 
and all uncharitableness ; by lewdness, and calumny, and filthy abuse ; by 
hiring himself and his pen and his press, to perform any service, no matter 
how base, for any wages, no matter how small ; by coaxing a dollar to-day 
from some poor creature covetous of jiraise, though the breath that bestows 
it is so foul that decent men turn from it in disgust; by extorting a dollar 
to-morrow from some timid wrong-doer, whose misdeeds he threatens to pro- 
claim ; by becoming in turn a mendicant, a parasite, a bully, and remaining 
always the miscreant which nature made him ; by filling the streets with 
libellous and obscene sheets, that destroy the peace of families, and corrupt 
the manners of youth, and offend the morals of the community ; there are 
such, Sir, who, like the hateful progeny of Sin and Death, 

" A cry of hell-houndis never ccnsinft, bark 
With wide Cerhoroan mouths, full loud, and ring 
A hideous peal.' 



35 

But, I' thank God, Mr. President, these, and such as these, are but excres- 
cences on the great body of the American press, which, though odious and 
ofiFensive to its healtliier members, cannot disturb the pulsations of its mighty 
heart, nor cripple the energies of its indomitable arm, nor impair the vigor of 
its teeming brain. With due respect for the learned professions which embody, 
as I cheerfully own, so much valuable erudition and practical wisdom and 
high intellectual attainment, I do not hesitate to affirm that the conductors of 
the newspaper press, relatively to numbers, comprise as many men of schol- 
astic acquirements joined to superior natural gifts, whose knowledge is as 
ample and varied, whose judgments are as well informed by observation and 
experience, whose sagacities are as thoroughly sharpened by constant exer- 
cise, and whose walk and conversation are as pure and upright, as can be 
found in any or all of them ; and 1 am proud of the order to which I belong, 
because, in my inmost conscience, I believe, that by far the larger portion 
of those who compose it, however they may disagree as to means, are — each 
in his own sphere, and according to the measure of his ability — laboring 
earnestly and faithfully to fulfil the trusts confided to them, namely to assist in 
cultivating the minds, and improving the affections, and advancing the for- 
tunes, and shaping the social and political destinies of twenty-three millions 
of freemen. 

In a confederacy like ours, Mr. President, formed of numerous sovereign- 
ties, with distinct, and often conflicting interests, there can be no common 
centre where public opinion may be formed, and from which it may radiate. 
Washington can never be to the Union, what, in this respect, London is to 
Great Britain, or Paris to France ; and hence, there can never grow up with 
us, any single journal or any number of journals in a particular locality, of 
such commanding power and influence as to give tone and direction to all 
others elsewhere. New York, and Philadelphia, and Boston, and Baltimore, 
and the growing cities of the South and West, must continue to speak, as they 
have heretofore spoken, through their own immediate organs. But while we 
shall not have — nor is it desirable that we should have — any great over- 
shadowing metropolitan agency, such as that to which I have adverted, as the 
country moves forward on its path of prosperity, developing its resources, 
increasing its wealth, enlarging its population, extending its boundaries, 
advancing in mental and moral and religious culture, in civilization, in refine- 
ment, and in the arts, it cannot be doubted that the press generally will move 
with equal pace, and, freed from the infirmities which now impair its useful- 
ness, — disdaining to register the strifes, and echo the lamentations of those who 
control it, but becoming, as it should be, wholly impersonal, and dedicating 
itself to the honorable and useful aims for which it was instituted, will con- 
stitute an infinite chorus of voices, differing in volume and sound, some rising 
to the loftiest realms of utterance, others subsiding to the softest cadences, 
but all instinct with a common spirit, and all swelling and mingling together 
in one grand strain of onward, forever onward, Humanity, Christianity, 
Liberty, and Rational Progress. 

The seventh volunteer toast was — 

New Jersey, who early established those principles in Council for which she 
so bravely fought on the glorious fields of Princeton, Trenton and Monmouth. 

Mr. Edward Armstrong, in introducing it, said — 

I am sure, sir, that all present must feel a common disappointment in the 
absence of the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, (Judge Ilornblower,) 
who, it was to have been hoped would have responded in behalf of our sister 
Historical Societies. We, however, must not in his absence forget his native 
State — our sister — New Jersey, and to whom with so much justice we can apply 
this designation, endeared to us as she is by so many incidents in her early 
annals, by so many social ties, by so many social interests, and by the saci-i- 
fices and the glories of a common revolutionary struggle. It was for her our 
revered founder first tried his skill in statemanship, and framed his earliest 



36 

constitution, the embodiment of all that was comprehensive, liberal and saga- 
cious. Indeed, sir, but for the interest he felt and which he never ceased to 
feel in the welfare of the State whose constitution he thus drew, it would 
not be idle to conjecture that the knowledge might never have been derived of 
that rich territory which lay to her westward — of our own beloved Penn- 
sylvania, so that but for New Jersey, we might not have been here this day to 
recount and cherish those priceless legacies, — our founder's treasured memory, 
his virtuous deeds, his benignant policy, his noble constitution, bis wise laws. 
The patriotic position which New Jersey assumed during the revolutionary 
conflict, was no more the impulse of the moment, than that struggle was the 
offspring of the hour, instead of the fruition of a century. It would be folly 
to suppose that men who had fled from religious and political intolerance, who 
had been all their lives accustomed to mark well the boundary between prero- 
gative and freedom, who had been trained to scan the phraseology of every 
statute, the effect of every royal veto, lest some latent tyranny might lie 
concealed, who in governing themselves had felt the skill, the courage, and 
decision which self-reliance always imparts, were not willing and instant to 
defeat the first weak attempts at coercion, or to perceive the issues which 
submission or resistance might involve. And we are this day reminded upon 
how early an occasion New Jersey promulged those principles in her council 
chambers which she afterwards asserted with the sword. " It were a madness," 
said, in 1680, the patriots of New Jersey, " to leave a free, good and improved 
country to plant in a wilderness, and there adventure many thousands of 
pounds to give an absolute title to another person to tax us at will and plea- 
sure." What mortal can estimate the influence of truths so early, so boldly, 
so wisely uttered. And let it never be forgotten that the principles New Jersey 
so fearlessly asserted in the hour of peace, she sustained in that of bloody trial 
— upon those fields so fruitful of pride, and joj', and gratitude, so dear to us, 
and which will be so much dearer to posterity — which turned the tide of war 
— which revived the almost perished hopes of a nation, ami were blessed by 
the God of battles, to the political salvation of a great people. " Let there be 
light," said the Divine author of all goodness, and "there was light;" but a 
a decree no less irreversible went forth in the dying roar of the last cannonade 
at Princeton. It was, " let there be liberty," and there was liberty. 

Judge Horkblower of New Jersey, was to have spoken in response, but not 
being able to be present in person, he sent the following letter : 

New Jersey, Friday evening, Nov. 5, 1852 

Gentlemen : — At the request of the Corresponding Secretary and members 
of the Executive Committee of the New Jersey Historical Society, I consented 
to be its representative at your ensuing anniversary celebration of the landing 
of Wm. Penn at Chester. In the hope of being your guest on that interesting 
and social occasion, I have anticipated much pleasure, and thought it might 
constitute one item in my own unimportant "history," that I had i-epresented 
New Jersey at such a meeting of the Historical Societ}' of Pennsylvania. But, 
alas! I find myself doomed to a disappointment. Within a few days past. I 
have been attacked with the influenza, accompanied with a \-iolent catarrh ; and 
I know, from long experience, that there is not the least prospect of my re- 
covery in time to enable me, with any personal comfort or satisfaction, to 
mingle with you in your social and intellectual enjoyments on Monday next. 

It is now too late forme to make the necessary arrangements to procure the 
attendance of any other officer or member of our Society to meet with you. 
If, at your festive board, you shall adopt the practice of exchanging sentiments, 
]ilease, in my behalf, as President of the New Jersey Historical Society, give 
the one inscribed below. I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obedient 
servant, 

Jos. C. IIORNBLOWER, 

In the 76th year of his age. 
George Northrop, Edw. Armstrong, Townsend Ward, and Jno. Jordan, Jr., 
EsqB., Com'tee, &c. 



37 

The States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, inseparably connected with each 
othei' by their geographical boundaries, may our united efforts to preserve 
their provincial and subsequent histories constitute a record truthful and just 
to our ancestors, and instructive to future generations. 

The eighth and last volunteer toast was — 

The Memory of the Deceased Members of the Ilistorical Society of Pennsylvania. 
As well the ornaments as the aids of history — may history cherish their re- 
membrance. 

Mk. Richard Vaux, in responding, said — 
Mr. President, 

It is with regret I undertake the duty assigned me. The dirge is no agree- 
able performance. The brilliant display of classic lore and historic research, 
enlivened by the incidents of this evening, give reality to the contrast of this 
duty, or its attempted execution. 

********* 

It is not in vain the lamented members of this Society labored. Its founders 
regarded the objects of their association as enjoined by a sense of justice to 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Her position as the Keystone State 
demanded the elimination of her historical character. While sister sovereignties 
flaunted their historic records, the silence of Pennsylvania was considered as 
an illation derogatory to the patriotism and just State pride of her sons. 
Tardily this Society has vindicated both. 

It may not be unworthy of note, that the original idea of the founders was 
to call their association, "The Society of the Sons of the Soil." Many were 
the consultations on this point. There is present now, one at least, who re- 
members this fact. Dr. Coates, one of the founders of this Society, remem- 
bers the occasion, when it was determined to adopt the present designation, 
"The Historical Society of Pennsylvania." 

This incident is a key to the true intents of the earliest members. To delve 
into the past of Pennsylvania, to rescue from forgetfulness the history of a 
State, of a soil, which will compare with that of any other community, and 
gain in the comparison. 

Yes, sir! a State whose "unbroken faith" — whose solemn compact, ratified 
without forms, and held inviolate — a State whose escutcheon has never been 
sullied by fraud, or tarnished by wrong — a State that has liberated education, 
ameliorated jurisprudence — christianized sectarianism, and nourished "Virtue, 
Liberty and Independence," has a history, worthy of an eternal life. 

Those of the departed members of this Society, whose memories your toast 
re-encircles with the wreath of remembrance, have not labored in vain. 

They opened the field of a glorious past, for the honest enquirer, and en- 
lightened student, and worthy son of the soil of Pennsylvania. The original 
laborers were few. Now they are many. The great ability, the historic 
learning which have enriched this evening's proceedings, attest the value of 
the first eff"orts of those, we now commemorate. 

They did not labor in vain. Year by year, as the benefits of this Society are 
made manifest — its objects realized — its ends consummated : when Pennsylvania 
shall be by her histoi-y, confirmed in her position as the Keystone of the Arch 
on which our nationality securely rests : each such epoch will itself establish 
the just claim of the founders of this Society, to the gratitude of the people of 
Pennsylvania. 



LETTERS. 

The following letters were received in answer to those of the Committee on Invita- 
tions. 

Near Seaford, Del, October 23, 1852, 
Gentlemen, 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 11th 
inst., inviting me to "the celebration of the anniversary of the landing of 
Penn, at Chester, on the 8th day of November next. I sincerely regret that 
engagements of the most urgent character, at home, precludes the possibility 
of my being with you on an occasion of such deep interest alike to the citi- 
zens of Pennsylvania and Delaware. 

Very Respectfully, 

Your obdt. servt., 
To Geo. Northrop, Esq., and others com. W. H. Ross. 



Philadelphia, October 25, 1852. 

My Dear Sirs, 

I have received the invitation which you have been so good as to give me, 
to become one of the guests of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at the 
celebration of the approaching " Anniversary of the landing of Penn." 

It will gratify me to be present among the auditors of the oration; but it 
will not be in my power to partake of the hospitality of the Society at their 
dinner, on the occasion. 

Accept for yourselves my thanks for the compliment, which you have paid 
me, and believe me. 

Kindly and respectfully yours, 

W. J. DUANE, 

TowNSEND Ward, John Jordan, Jr., Edward Armstrong, Esqs. 



Newark, N. J., November 2, 1852. 

Gentlemen, 

The venerable President of our Historical Society has informed me that, in 
a letter recently written in reply to your invitation to participate in the con- 
templated commemoration of the 8th inst., he intimated to you the probability 
that I would represent the society on that occasion. I regret that I am obliged 
to deny myself the satisfaction of so doing ; my presence on that day being 
required by a literary association here, with which I am connected ; but the 
society will be better represented, undoubtedly, by the President himself. 

It would give me great pleasure to join in celebrating the landing at New- 
castle, for, as a Jerseyman, I feel that to me, of right — as well as to you of 
Pennsylvania — belongs a share in the inheritance of the name and fame, the 
character and deeds of William Penn. In fact, I think we, of New Jersey, 
may rightfully claim the larger portion, as it is generally understood, that 
the pecuniary interest which Penn first acquired in our quarter, led to his 
subsequent acquaintance with the capabilities and advantages of the region 
which now perpetuates his name. 

Penn's attachment to New Jersey appears never to have varied. From the 
time that he wrote to his friends and brethren — " that there w such a province 
as New Jersey is certain" — he seems always to have entertained a high opin- 
ion of the country ; and the fact that William Penn, on taking a survey of 
the land, "said he had never seen such before in his life " — was cai-elully 
transmitted to the friends of the province in England, to increase their faith 
in its capabilities and encourage their exertions for its settlement ; and his 
proprietary rights were not parted with during his life. 



40 

It is an interesting circumstance that events in New Jersey should have led 
to the assertion for the first time — and that by Wra. Penn, or under his direc- 
tion — of the rights of the colonies to representation as a prerequisite to 
taxation. '-'The English right of common assent to taxes," and that "the 
king cannot justly take his subject's goods without tlieir consent," are doc- 
trines promulgated in connection with the measures taken for the revocation 
of the duty imposed in ItJBO upon importations into West Jersey. "It were 
a madness," says the interesting document i)ut forth by the Quakers of that 
day, " to leave a free, good, and improved country, to plant in a wilderness, 
and there adventure many thousands of pounds to give an absolute title to 
another person to tax us at will and pleasure." It will ever be one proof of 
the consistency of Penn's character that, while thus prompt in repelling 
wrong and oppression, he was equally ready to regard the just rights of 
others ; and it was probably, in a great degree owing to his example, that 
New Jersey, in all that relates to her intercourse with the aborigines, can 
proudly take her stand by the side of Pennsylvania, bearing as her mark of 
distinction, the title of " the great arbiter, or doer of justice," accorded in 
1769 by the Indians themselves. 

But it is unnecessary to refer at greater length to Penn's connection with 
New Jersey ; it is well known, and I must apologize for what I have already 
Tiyritten — pleading, in extenuation, that interest which all Jerseymen and Penn- 
sylvanians should take in every thing relating to his life and character. 

Very respectfully yours, 

W A. Whitehead. 

Geo. Northrop, Edward Armstrong. Esqrs., and others, Committee, &c. 



Pittsburgh, November 5, 1852. 

Gentlemen, 

I have delayed my reply to this late hour, with the hope that I might be 
enabled to accept the polite invitation conveyed to me by your letter of the 
8th ultimo., and to participate with you and the society, which you represent, 
in the pleasures of the celebration of the landing of that wise and good man, 
"William Penn, on our shores. My long absence from home during the spring, 
summer and fall, has crowded upon me, in a brief space of time, the amount 
of business which otherwise would have been spread over several months, 
and thus forbids my visit to your city at this time. 

Permit me to remark that we, of this portion of western Pennsylvania, have 
reason to remember with affection, and to honor the memory, not of William 
Penn alone, but of his descendant John, who, 1774, displayed much zeal, firm- 
ness and sound judgment, in maintaining the chartered limits of Pennsylvania 
against the insolent pretensions of Lord Uunmore. Permit me^ therefore, 
through you, to tender to your assembled friends the following tribute to 
that man, who, by his knowledge of the geography of the country, and his 
wisdom and firmness, contributed greatly to the extension of the western 
boundary, so as to include the head and a considerable portion of the course 
of the Ohio. 

While we duly honor and esteem the memory of that good man who made 
our land, the field for the dissemination of his generous and noble principles, 
let us not forget his descendant, John Penn, who, by his firmness, good sense, 
and frank diplomacy, ai led in securing, for the spread of those principles, 
an area extending from the Delaware to the Ohio. 

I remain, gentlemen, with sincere respect. 

Your obdt. servt., 
Neville B. Craig. 

To IMessrs. George Northrop, Edward Armstrong, John Jordan, Jr., 
TowNSEND Ward, Committee. 



41 

Gentlemen 

I have just received your favor announcing the contemplated celebration 
of Penn's Landing. It would give me great pleasure to participate in such a 
commemoration ; but a tour of duty carries me to the northern part of the 
State about that time, and will not permit me to return till after your appointed 
day. Be pleased to accept my thanks for your courtesy and believe me 

Very sincerely yours 

Alonzo Potter. 
Walnut str. 146, Tuesday Evening. 



Baltimore, October 27, 1852. 
Gentlemen, 

Your kind invitation to a representation of this association, to attend the 
anniversary meeting of the I'ennsylvania Historical Society, to celebrate the 
landing of Penn, has been received. But as this Society does not meet until the 
4th of November next, it will not be in ni^- power to submit your letter until 
then, when it will, no doubt, receive the cordial acknowledgments, to which it 
is so justly entitled. 

In the mean time I have the honor to be with the highest respect. 

Your obedient servant 

J. Spear Smith. 

Messrs. Geo. Northrop, Ed. Armstrong, John Jord.\n, Committee. 



Gentlemen, 

Your letter of the 11th instant, inviting me to the oration and dinner, com- 
memorative of the Landing of William Penn, was not received until after my 
return from Pittsburgh on the 23d of October, or it would have commanded an 
earlier reply. 

I regret exceedingly that circumstances will put it out of my power to join 
in the proposed celebration. 

Wishing you every enjoyment on the occasion, 

I am. Gentlemen, truly and most respectfully yours, 

G. M. Dallas. 

October 25, 1852. 

To George Northrop, John Jordan jun., Thos. S. Mitchelt., Edward 
Armstrong, and Tho.mas Biddle jun.. Committee of the Histdi-ical Society 
of Pennsylvania. 



[The following is from the last survivor of Lee's Legion of the Revolutionary War.'\ 

Haddonfield, October 29, 1852. 
Gentlemen, 

I have the honor to acknowledge your polite invitation to celebrate the an- 
niversary of the landing of Wm. Penn. It would be exceedingly gratifyine to 
me to join with you on that pleasing occasion. But age admonishes me that 
" there is no place like home." 

Very respectfully, 

Ja. B. Cooper. 
To Geo. Northrop, John Jordan, Townsend Wjvbd. 

6 



42 

Washington, October 27, 1852. 

Gentlemen, 

I have just received your letter of the 7th instant, by which you honor me 
with an invitation to the annual oration and dinner, commemorating the 
landing of Penn at Chester, on the 8th November, proximo. 

It is with deep regret I am constrained from a sense of duty, in connection 
with ray official position, to decline an invitation which, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, I would most gladly accept ; but having been absent from my 
post for some weeks during the present autumn, it does not seem proper that 
I should take to myself more time, so near the occasion of the meeting of 
congress, at a period when my engagements are very pressing. 

My warmest sympathies will be with you at a time when I would be happy 
to be personally present to form new, and renew old acquaintance among 
those whose love for our native state they manifest by an annual festival in 
honor of her immortal founder, whose name should be reverenced, and whose 
character should be held up for imitation, while the example of good men of 
past days may be supposed to exercise an influence on those of the time being. 
Highly appreciating the honor confeiTcd upon me, 

I am, gentlemen, 

Your very obdt. servt., 

Jos. C. G. Kennedy. 

Messrs. George Northrop, John Jordan, Jr., Edward Armstrong, 
TowNsEisD Ward. 

Committee of arrangements of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

Philadelphia. 



Wilkesbarre, October 20, 1852. 

Gentlemen, 

Your favor of the 7th was not received until to-day. 1 hasten to tender 
you my most respectful acknowledgements for your polite invitation. 

To participate in " the celebration of the anniversary of the landing of 
Penn at Chester," would be to me a rare pleasure, but it is out of my power. 

With more than Roman — with a Christian spirit he sought 

" To civilize the rude unpolisbcd world. 
And l.iy it umler the restraints of laws; 
To make man mild and sociable with man. 
And cultivate the wild licentious savage." 

That the boldness and magnitude of the undertaking were fully equalled 
by the wisttom and perseverance displayed in its execution, is attested by the 
unsurpassed prosperity and happiness this day enjoyed by two millions of 
inhabitants in Pennsylvania. 

It was, indeed, in a super-eminent degree, the auspicious lot of William 
Penn 

'•To scatter plenty o"er a smiling land." 

And I cherish the pleasing hope that the descendant of our great law- 
giver, now on a visit to America, will be present, and the memory of the 
illustrious dead be honored by the cordial welcome of the living. 
With great respect, gentlemen. 

Your friend and servant, 

Charles Miner. 
To Gkoroe Northrop, Edward. Armstrong, John Jordan, Jr., Townsend 
Wabd, Esqrs. 



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